Subspace Redux
by GhostWriter267
Summary: This is a retelling of the Subspace Emissary story from Super Smash Bros. Brawl with my own writing style.  Be warned, this whole story is one major spoiler.  Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to the first chapter of my Subspace Redux story and my first solo story on Fanfiction. I like to begin each of my stories with a quote from the cartoon or video game the story is based off of. I do this to show that wisdom can be found anywhere if you only know how to look. Enough of that deep stuff, now on with the show. I do not own Smash Bros., the games or the characters._

"_It's dangerous to go alone!"_

- The Legend of Zelda

**Chapter 1 – READY…FIGHT!**

This was it. Today was the day. That spectacular day that happened only once a year when the strongest, bravest, and most skillful warriors throughout the land could test their mettle against one another in the tournament of champions. Thousands of spectators were crammed into Brawl Stadium, a magnificent structure of steel and glass that floated high above the forest. They came from all across the land to bear witness to this most honorable display of skill, even if they did have to pay six bucks for a small soda.

Among the scores of screaming fans sat two very special female audience members. One had pale skin and wore a purple and white silk dress with golden thread woven through it. Her face was long and angular, but her blue eyes were soft. A demure grin spread from pointed ear to pointed ear. Her brown hair was done up in intricate braids.

**ZELDA**

Next to Zelda was another smiling princess with a much rosier complexion. Her pink dress was fringed with delicate lace and a large blue jewel was displayed on her chest. Her blue eyes sparkled with child-like innocence. Atop a thick head of blond hair sat a pointed gold crown adorned with rubies and sapphires.

**PEACH**

Both royal figures stood tall and regal, away from the rest of the crowd, but they felt just as much excitement as the rest, despite their calm outward appearance. The ruckus within the stadium reached a fever pitch as the start of the tournament was announced. For many, this first battle - the traditional Exhibition Match - was the climax of the tournament and the real reason they had made the journey. Everything afterwards just seemed so hum-drum by comparison. Make no mistake, the regular contestants were good, very good, but they were just regular people. The fighters in the Exhibition Match were something much rarer and much more appealing to the public: heroes.

A fanfare sounded at the far end of the stadium as confetti shot into the air, announcing the arrival of the first contestant. A lone man walked confidently through the entranceway. He was a little shorter than average, but stocky. He wore a plain red shirt under blue overalls and white gloves on each hand. His jet black hair was hidden under a red cap with an "M" proudly displayed on the front. A bushy mustache sat above a wide smile as he waved cheerfully to the roaring crowd.

**MARIO**

The champion of the Mushroom Kingdom stopped in the center of the stage, awaiting his opponent. He didn't have to wait long before a small speck off in the distance grew larger as it zoomed toward the open roof of the stadium. In flew a shooting star with a little pink puffball on it. The puffball jumped off the star and landed lightly on two red feet. His blue-black eyes were full of laughter and his stubby little arms waved enthusiastically to anyone and everyone he could see.

**KIRBY**

"Are you ready, my little friend?" asked Mario in a friendly voice, but one filled with confidence at the outcome of this match.

Kirby said nothing and instead did a backflip and emitted several loud squeaks which Mario took to be a yes.

* * *

Zelda and Peach had watched the entrances – dramatic as always when it came to heroes – and now eagerly waited for the start of the match. As they gazed down at the contestants stretching and warming up, it occurred to both ladies how odd it was to see two different heroes together like this, even if it was by invitation. Heroes did not normally get together with one another, you know, like friends and just hang out. You could make the excuse that they were always busy saving the world and all that and to an extent that's true, but part of the reason was also that heroes could be fiercely jealous of the places they protected and didn't want other heroes sticking their noses into their business.

While the heroes may not exactly be best friends with one another, world leaders like Zelda and Peach felt it was their duty to create civil ties between the lands and maintain a sense of camaraderie among the different people.

Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't partake in a little good natured banter, right?

"It's a shame that Link couldn't fight in the match this year," Peach said sweetly. "I'm sure he could have pulled out a win this time. If Mario wasn't fighting, of course."

Zelda's smile faded a bit as she looked at her fellow princess with one eye. Link, the hero from Zelda's kingdom of Hyrule had fought – and lost – in last year's Exhibition Match. It had been close. The match had dragged on far longer than any other in memory, but ultimately, Link had fallen to the fiery punches of Captain Falcon. It was still a sore subject for him.

"Well, of course Link couldn't participate," Zelda stated simply. The heroes were on a rotation for slots in the Exhibition Match and Link wouldn't get another turn for a few years yet. Her smile regained its strength. "But you're right, I'm sure he would win this year, no matter whom he was fighting."

Now it was Peach's turn to scowl, but she recovered quickly. "I imagine it's been quite awhile since you've seen Mario battle. Very few can stand against him for long."

"Oh, undoubtedly," said Zelda with a reassuring hand to Peach's shoulder. "Still, the citizens of Dream Land rave about Kirby and his adventures. He must be quite the warrior himself."

"We shall see."

* * *

Down below, Mario and Kirby were squaring off. All traces of the jollity they had shown the crowd were gone as they stared at one another with serious scowls. A whole host of mental calculations and scenarios were playing out: What would his first move be? How should I counter it? Should I wait to use my special move?

**READY…FIGHT!**

At the sound of the signal, all conscious thought left the two warriors and they starting acting purely on instinct. Mario made the first move. He dashed towards Kirby, his fists swinging in wide arcs: a lot of speed, but very little power. They were test punches, meant to gauge his opponent's reaction time.

Kirby didn't disappoint. He dodged every one of Mario's punches effortlessly and launched a counter-offensive. Kirby wasn't pulling any punches, so to speak, as he rained jab after jab anywhere on Mario's body he could reach. His attacks were even faster than Mario's and the famous plumber had to struggle to block even half of them as the pink hero pushed him back to the edge of the arena. However, because of Kirby's small size and light weight, the punches didn't have much force behind them. Another disadvantage was that Kirby's arms were so short, he had to get in close to Mario to attack him.

This provided Mario with an opportunity. Abandoning his defense, Mario reached out and grabbed Kirby by the shoulders…or head…or…well, the guy is round – it's hard to tell. Anyway, Mario grabbed Kirby, ignored his punches and started spinning him around. Kirby was so dizzy he couldn't fight back as Mario spun him around and around until he let go and Kirby shot out through the open roof of the stadium as fast as he had originally entered.

Against any other opponent, this might be an automatic win, but this particular fight was not so easily won. No sooner had Kirby been thrown into the air when he managed to get control of himself, inhale, and puff himself out to more than twice his normal size. He hovered in mid-air for a second out over the edge of the stadium before flapping his arms and floating back down to the arena.

This battle was far from over.

* * *

Along with the thousands of spectators in the Brawl Stadium, there was one person who was watching the Exhibition Match from a much higher perspective.

Up above the mortal realms is a place known as Angel Land where angels live. Who'd a thunk, huh? This place is a paradise of marble buildings set amongst snow white clouds solid enough to stand on, but soft enough that they'd put you to sleep in an instant if you laid down on them. The inhabitants of Angel Land enjoy a daily routine of tranquil bliss and peaceful serenity.

"Yeah! Get 'em! Knock his block off!"

Well, semi-serenity. The only interruptions of which were the shouts coming from a grand temple in the center of Angel Land dedicated to Palutena, the Goddess of Light. But she was not the one making all that noise. In the center of the temple was a large chamber filled with thick columns that rose up out of sight to a ceiling hidden within a soft darkness.

Why was a room in a temple to the Goddess of Light shrouded in darkness? Well, this room doesn't get a lot of use. Its sole source of light came from a circular stone basin which held a shallow pool of water. The water in this magic basin showed not a reflection of the chamber, but the fight between Mario and Kirby which was quickly ramping up into high gear. After pulling their first few punches to test each other, both combatants dove deep into their stock of special moves and were really going all out.

Hunched over the viewing basin, eagerly watching the fight, was a young boy angel wearing a white robe and sandals. A wreath of golden leaves was nestled within his light brown hair. The two wings on his back flapped and shook as he cheered for first one contestant than the other.

**PIT**

"Get behind him! Hit him! Hit him!"

Pit had always been kind of the odd ball in Angel Land. He wasn't content to spend his days meditating or relaxing. He longed for adventure and excitement. He certainly got his fill of that when he defeated Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness and her legions, but that had been years ago.

"Watch out! He's got a sword! MOVE!"

The young angel's eyes were totally focused on Mario and Kirby as they ran, jumped, flew, and punched their way from one end of the arena to the other. Since peace had descended on Angel Land again, it seemed that the only way Pit could get his daily adrenaline rush was to watch the mortals doing the exhilarating and dangerous escapades that he'd never find in his heavenly home. A disappointing arrangement, but he had learned to live with it.

"Throw another fireball! Jump! Jump! Higher!"

He shouldn't be using the viewing basin in this way. Pit knew that. In fact, he shouldn't be using it at all. Only Palutena and her highest advisors were allowed in this room. The young angel just couldn't help himself. Pit so looked forward to the Brawl Tournament every year and since angels weren't allowed to descend to the Overworld, this was the only way to see it.

Pit's brow turned down as he frowned. The two fighters had abruptly stopped and were now just staring at each other. Pit didn't know what was going on, but they hadn't given up, that much was clear. Their muscles were tense, their faces set in determination. Anticipation filled the air. Something big was about to happen.

* * *

Mario huffed and puffed as he struggled to catch his breath. The crowd around him was making a tremendous din, practically begging him to keep the fight going, but all he could hear was his own heart beat; a drum pounding out a steady, if rapid tempo in his ears. Kirby had turned out to be a tougher opponent that he had first thought. The plumber had thrown fireballs, but Kirby dodged or blocked them all. He used his F.L.U.D.D. water cannon to push Kirby off the arena, but the Dream Land warrior just floated back. Using Mario's special cape to redirect the puffball's attacks provided a little bit of breathing room, but Kirby always managed to recover quickly. Mario simply could not keep up with the little guy's speed.

Meanwhile, Kirby was also taking a much deserved breather. He had quickly learned that while he might have the advantage in speed, Mario was by far the stronger. The Mushroom Kingdom's hero had been able to block all of Kirby's moves: the fireballs had blunted his sword attacks, that water cannon had prevented him from using his aerial moves, and the cape had even redirected several of his best attacks back at him. That was over and above the punches Mario had managed to land. Kirby's puffy body helped to soften the blows, but they still hurt.

It was obvious that if this kept up, the best Kirby could hope for was a stalemate. Time to bust out his secret weapon. But first he'd have to draw Mario in close.

Taking a deep breath of air, Kirby puffed himself out and floated high overhead. Mario immediately recognized what the pink warrior was doing. Kirby was planning to fly overhead, turn to stone and drop down – a move the plumber had so far been able to avoid. This time he noticed that Kirby was floating up at a much slower pace. This could be his chance.

Kirby saw Mario running forward and inwardly smiled. He had been right; Mario took his slow ascent as fatigue and was rushing to take advantage of that. The plumber squatted down and leapt into an uppercut, catching Kirby on the chin…or the area where the chin should be. Remember, he's round; it's hard to tell. Kirby fell to the arena floor, stunned by the impacts to his face and his back. He sat up and could just make out three blurry Mario's charging at him. Kirby stood up and just as Mario was going to unleash another punch, the pink warrior opened his mouth wide and swallowed Mario whole.

The entire audience gasped as one and Zelda and Peach, watching from their box wore twin expressions of shock and dismay.

Mario saw and heard none of this. He was floating in a dark place, as if underwater. He could breathe, but other than that, he felt nothing. It was if his sense of touch had abandoned him. Then, suddenly, Mario felt a sharp wave of pain flowing through him, as if he were being electrocuted. This lasted just a split second before there was a flash of light and Mario found himself, dazed, on the arena floor. He turned back to look at Kirby and found that the warrior from Dream Land was now sporting a red cap just like his.

It took Mario a second to gather his wits about what just happened. "Did he…Did I, I mean…Did you just swallow me?" This was definitely a new experience for Mario; his enemies had never eaten him before. "I don't even want to think about where I came out."

"How absolutely vulgar!" cried Peach from her observation box in the audience, who considered it the height of bad manners to eat one's opponent.

"Perhaps," mused Zelda with a faint smirk. "But unless I'm mistaken, Kirby has just managed to turn the tide of battle."

Mario – still slightly disgusted by what just happened – wondered just what that move was supposed to have accomplished besides providing Kirby with a snazzy new chapeau. He didn't have to wonder long. Kirby spun his arms like a pair of pinwheels, throwing a barrage of fireballs at Mario. The heroic plumber was so stunned by this that his overalls were engulfed in flames before he even thought of dodging. Frantically patting his pants, Mario took several short hops away from Kirby only to find that the puffball warrior was hopping as well, trying to get closer and still flinging fireballs.

"Leaping Lasagna!" cried Mario. "Now he's got my jumping powers too. No way; that's gotta be some kind of patent infringement."

Kirby was matching Mario leap for leap as both fighters threw fire at one another. The Dream Land warrior was getting the hang of Mario's power fast and decided to try another one of his moves. Squatting down – which made Kirby look like a pink pancake – he leapt up and landed a wicked uppercut to Mario's chin. But, see, here was the problem. Kirby might have had Mario's techniques and abilities, but physically, he still wasn't very strong. The uppercut had connected, but to Mario, it was more like a slap than a punch. The Italian hero was able to quickly recover, bring both hands over his head and deliver a smashing blow that send Kirby crashing down to the arena floor. Kirby was just starting to get up when Mario, still in midair, started spinning around, shot down like a rocket and landed a mega-powered corkscrew kick right on top of Kirby's head.

Not even Kirby's fluffy body could save him from the full force of the blow. There was a flash of light and all at once there was a statue of Kirby standing on a round gold base in the center of the arena. Trophification. Mario slowly walked up to the Kirby trophy and studied it for a moment as if it was a piece of art in a museum. He reached down and touched the golden base which filled with a golden light that spilled across the Kirby statue and suddenly the pink warrior was once again standing in the arena – minus the Mario hat – looking none the worse for wear.

"Heck of a good try, Paesano," said Mario with just a faint trace of a victorious smirk in his voice. "It's been a pleasure battling with you."

Kirby squeaked happily and grasped Mario's outstretched hand. Only then did the two combatants notice the crowd around them was cheering their heads off and not just for Mario. Kirby was receiving his share of the congratulations for a spectacular spectacle. The only person who seemed displeased with the outcome of the fight was Princess Zelda who could not totally hide a disappointed frown as she handed several blue rupees over to a broadly grinning Princess Peach. She smiled down at her champion who gave a happy wave in return.

Suddenly, a loud crackle – like thunder – filled the air and the entire stadium started to quake. Excited whoops transformed into panicked shouting as a dark red cloud expanded above the arena. From this cloud appeared a massive flying ship with bat-like wings, a line of cannon turrets along each side and an angular mask on the bow.

_What is this strange ship and what business does it have at the Brawl Stadium? Find out in the next chapter. Reviews welcome._


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed Chapter 1 of my story. I had meant to update a little sooner, but that huge snowstorm we had in New England completely knocked out my power and internet. I just got back online today. Anyway, here for your enjoyment - I hope - is Chapter 2. Reviews welcome._

* * *

**Chapter 2 – The Darkness Comes**

Mario stared up at the ship hovering over the Brawl Arena. He was no stranger to space travel and had seen some weird looking ships in his time – including one shaped like his head and that clown copter thing Bowser was always riding around in – but never before had he seen anything as menacing looking at this. This was obviously a war ship and Mario didn't want to think about why it had come here. On the other hand, Kirby seemed very pleased to see the ship. He bounced up and down with a big smile on his face, oblivious to the screaming going on around him.

"Do you know who's ship that is?" asked Mario hesitantly.

Kirby nodded and ran towards the ship with his arms stretched out like he was greeting a favorite uncle whom he knew would have an extra large Christmas present. After only a few steps, Kirby looked up and saw a hatch open up on the bottom of the ship. From the opening spilled what looked to be a cloud made up of some kind of small purple globs.

The Dream Land's resident hero was now backing away from the ship with a curious and confused look on his puffy face. Mario had been somewhat mollified when Kirby admitting to knowing the owner of the ship, but instantly became defensive again at seeing his fellow hero's reaction.

The purple globs fell across the arena like dirty snow. Mario slowly crept up to one, acting like it might spring up and try to bite him. Once he got as close as he dared, he took a good long look at the little thing; a purple and black ball of fuzz, vibrating slightly as if was filled with bumblebees. It looked harmless enough, but Mario's instincts for danger were jumping off the scale. Cautiously, he reached out for the glob.

It twitched.

Mario quickly drew his hand back. The glob twitched again and starting rolling away from the plumber. That's when Mario noticed that all the spores that had hit the arena floor were moving. They were gathering into small piles and those piles were forming into robot-like figures about as tall as Mario. They had black skin, green torsos and caps, boxing glove hands and lifeless red eyes. Soon the stadium was filled with the Primids.

"I don't suppose you know what these things are?" Mario asked Kirby.

The Star Warrior's only response was to pull out his sword and point it threateningly at the nearest Primid.

"I was afraid you were gonna say that," muttered Mario as he assumed his own battle stance.

As one, the Primids rushed at Mario and Kirby. The two heroes dodged and blocked the strange creatures' punches and took every opportunity to counterattack. The Primids weren't terribly fierce fighters and went down after one or two blows, but they had greater numbers on their side.

Most of the audience had left the stadium at the first sign of the gigantic ship. Zelda and Peach had stayed behind, helping to direct the evacuation and making sure everyone else was safely out before they left too. However, they saw Mario and Kirby fighting the creatures that had formed from the purple and black specks (Shadow Bugs) and realized that the two heroes were quickly going to be overrun.

Calling upon her own special powers, Zelda instantly teleported from the stadium seating area to directly behind a mob of Primids. With a wave of her hand, the back line of the creatures burst into flames. Any Primid caught in the inferno dissolved into particles of darkness. When the flames died, several of the creatures surrounding Mario and Kirby turned and advanced on Zelda.

The Princess of Hyrule laid down another line of fire, but this time most of the Primids jumped over it. Zelda was getting ready to block the attack of the first Primid when she heard "Yoo hoo!" called out from above in a sweet voice. Peach, having leapt from the upper stadium seating area, was using her parasol to float gently down to the arena floor. She landed ever so lightly on her feet and twisted around gracefully like a ballerina while blowing a gentle kiss towards the Primids.

The creatures born of darkness were confused by such behavior and looked amongst themselves, wondering what to do.

"Hi YAH!"

Primids scattered like so many bowling pins when Peach barreled through the group with a powerful hip check. And not a single hair out of place.

"Wow." That was all Zelda could say after that display, never having considered Peach to be the warrior type.

Now even more of the Primids were abandoning their original fight to deal with this new royal threat, which gave Mario and Kirby some much needed breathing room. A few flying flames and some swift sword swinging made quick work of the vile creatures. As the last Primid dissolved, an uneasy peace settled over the arena, but the massive ship still hung threateningly in the air.

"Peach!" cried Mario, running towards the princess. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Mario, I'm fine." Peach lightly grasped the plumber's hands and looked down into his wide blue eyes. She saw in those eyes great worry that she could have been hurt in the battle and an even greater relief that none of those creatures had touched her. Once he was satisfied that Peach was indeed unharmed, Mario turned to Zelda and asked if she too was alright; she confirmed that she was.

"What exactly were those things?" wondered Zelda. She took a few slow steps around the area floor, watching as the last of the dark particles faded from existence.

"I don't know," admitted Mario. He pointed to the warship still overhead. "But somebody on that ship does. We have to get up there." He said it confidently, but Mario had no idea how he was going to do that. It was up too high for even him to jump.

"Can you teleport up to it?" Peach asked of Zelda.

The Hyrulian princess looked doubtful. "I don't know. Truthfully, I have never tried to travel a distance that great by magic." Still, she was determined to try. Before she could summon her magic, however, she turned towards a distracting squeaking behind her. Kirby was jumping up and down, waving his arms anxiously, and pointing at something above his head.

Mario and the two princesses looked up and saw something else fly out of the open hatch of the giant ship. It wasn't more of those dark little Shadow Bugs. It was a lone figure flying down on some kind of round floating platform. Attached to the bottom of the platform was a metal sphere with a red X on it.

The figure was dressed in a green and red robe. An ornate green hat covered his head so that the only visible feature of his face was a pair of bright yellow eyes, as lifeless as the Primid's eyes had been.

**ANCIENT MINISTER**

The Minister's floating platform came to rest in front of the four heroes. They each took a battle stance, ready for anything. The Minister lowered his head just slightly to take in the group standing before him, but other than that, he paid them no mind. With no visible prompting, the sphere with the X dropped from the underside of the platform and landed heavily on the arena stage. Two robots appeared from behind it. They were identical: long metal rods for bodies, a rectangular block head with two large lenses for eyes, two claw-like arms and a large wheeled base instead of feet.

Peach leaned down to whisper in Mario's ear. "Where did they come from?" The plumber just shrugged his shoulders in response.

The robots paid no attention to the heroes. They positioned themselves on either side of the sphere and inserted their arms into twin sets of square slots.

Mario didn't know what they were doing, but his gut told him it was beyond bad.

The robots started to roll backwards and as they did, the sphere split open to reveal a glass cylinder with a glowing orb inside. The orb pulsed as currents of blue energy caressed its surface. Inside the orb's depths was a swirling mass of purple and black, as if had been stuffed almost to bursting with Shadow Bugs. Beneath the orb and the cylinder was a timer set at three minutes. With a steady beep, the timer began counting down.

"Stand back!" Mario sprung into action. He didn't know what this thing was or where it came from, he only knew he had to get rid of it. He ran full out towards the device. Another loud crash stopped him. Had another sphere been dropped? He turned to look behind him and gasped in shock. Kirby, Zelda, and Peach also turned and were equally stunned. They looked up to see a giant Piranha Plant: Petey Piranha. His massive head was just one big mouth supported by a stalk body that looked way too frail. A ring of yellow petals lined the back of his head. Two leaf arms were carrying two metal cages.

Peach screamed in fright.

Kirby started in silent astonishment.

Zelda quipped, "That is a whole lot of vegetable."

Instinct forced Mario to forget about the devise with the timer and charge his long-time enemy. Petey Piranha grinned and opened his mouth wide as if to chomp down on the plumber hero. But, to everyone's ongoing surprise, a cannonball shot out of the giant plant's mouth and struck Mario point blank, knocking him into the sky and clear out of sight.

"Mario!" cried Peach, stretching out her hand towards the plumber's retreating form.

Kirby and Zelda also turned to look, which proved to be a mistake. The doors to the steel cages in Petey's arms popped open and a beam of yellow light lanced out of each. One beam struck Zelda and the other hit Peach. They disappeared from Kirby's side and reappeared in the cages. The doors swung shut with twin ominous clangs. The princesses were now trapped like pet songbirds.

"Oh! Release us at once, you putrid plant!" demanded Peach as she shook her finger angrily at Petey.

When the Piranha Plant made no move to obey, Zelda shook her head at Peach's naiveté. "I don't think he's listening," Zelda said. "We'll have to take matters into our own hands." The Princess of Hyrule gathered her energy and gracefully twisted her arms. There was a bright flash of light, but other than that, nothing happened. Zelda was still in the cage. For the first time, her confident exterior was starting to crack. "My magic won't work in this cage."

Peach had come to the same conclusion. Her open parasol was spinning in her hands like a buzz saw and sparks flew from the cage bars as they connected with the edge of the pink umbrella. "My powers do not work either." Normally, her parasol was a surprisingly powerful weapon; now it was nothing more than a plastic accessory, albeit a very fashionable one. "What do we do?" Peach asked, a note of panic creeping into her voice.

"I…" Zelda looked down at the floor of her cage. "I don't know."

Well, Kirby sure did. He marched right up to Petey Piranha, eyes set in anger, and squeaked a challenge at the lumbering giant. Petey laughed, a deep booming noise, at the puny little hero who thought he could take him down. Petey crashed the two cages together – eliciting screams from both princesses – and roared to Kirby, accepting the challenge from the warrior from Dream Land.

Kirby pulled out his sword and swung a shockwave towards Petey. The Piranha Plant jumped up, avoiding the blow and angled himself so that he would come back down right on top of Kirby. The pink hero scrambled to get out of the way and just barely avoid becoming a puffball pancake. He avoided the Ground Pound attack twice before he was able to get close enough to chomp down on Petey's leg.

The taste sickened Kirby, but he figured it must be pretty healthy. He was fighting a vegetable, after all. Petey roared in pain and started shaking his leg very hard. Kirby had managed to take several bites out of Petey's leg before the giant plant had managed to shake him loose. Not bad, considering Kirby didn't have any teeth.

Petey roared again, this time at anger. How dare that pipsqueak hurt him? He swung Peach's cage like a club at Kirby.

"Kirby, look out!" cried Peach, rather unnecessarily. The attack was so slow that Kirby was able to duck out of the way easily.

Petey kept on swinging the cages and Kirby became less concerned with being hit and more worried about the princesses getting hurt this way. He had to do something to stop this.

When Peach's cage came at him again, he was ready. Instead of ducking, he grabbed onto it. The centripetal force of the cage's arc pulled at Kirby as he held on tightly. Peach gazed out from the bars with a confused look, silently questioning what Kirby was doing. Ignoring this, the pink warrior waited until the cage had reached the apex of its swing and let go, allowing himself to be flung into the air.

Peach and Zelda gasped, both certain that Kirby would meet the same fate the Mario had. But Kirby had a trick up his sleeve. (I know; he's not really wearing sleeves.) Angling himself in the air so that he was right above Petey Piranha, Kirby focused his energy and transformed into a two ton piece of rock. Now weighing about two thousand times more than normal, Stone Kirby plummeted through the air and struck Petey right on the noggin.

The blow was so strong and Petey's head was so surprisingly soft that Stone Kirby sank deep into the Piranha Plant's skull before he could change back and float himself out of there. Petey swayed unsteadily on his legs, but didn't topple over. He had been stunned, though, and that was all Kirby needed to make his way over to Zelda's cage, which was closest. He landed on Petey's arm, drew his sword and proceeded to cut through the steel bars and quickly as he could. Zelda stood by anxiously. She wanted to help, but didn't want to take the chance that her other magics might not just fizzle, but backfire on the both of them.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the cage bars gave way and Zelda leapt to the ground. A good thing too; it looked like Petey was getting his head together. Kirby tried to float over to the cage that still held Princess Peach, but there wasn't enough time. Petey swung the cage out of Kirby's reach. With his other, now free, arm he reached up to grab Kirby.

Suddenly Petey stiffened and reared back with a howl as bright orange flames erupted all over his body. The heat forced Kirby to back away from. He bobbed in the air, watching Petey writhe in agony. The Star Warrior looked down and saw Zelda, breathing heavily with her arms outstretched towards the giant Piranha Plant. Free of the power-dampening effects of the cage, the princess of Hyrule was ready to unleash some major fury. Another twist of her arms and Petey was bathed in even more fire; however, Zelda was careful to keep the fire away from the arm that held Peach's cage.

"Kirby! The cage!"

With just a quick nod to show he understood, Kirby steered himself towards Peach's cage. The Mushroom Kingdom ruler had backed up as far away from Petey Piranha as she could, which wasn't far. The fire wasn't near her, but her cheeks were still a rosy red from the heat. Instead of landing on the leaf arm, Kirby exhaled and cut the arm clear in half as he dropped to the ground. Peach's cage landed on its side on the arena floor with a clang and the door popped open.

Now that Peach was safely out of range, Zelda let loose with one final fire blast. Petey resembled a roasted marshmallow now. Completely engulfed in flames, blinded, in more pain than you would believe, he stumbled backwards desperately trying to put himself out. At the edge of the arena, he tripped on the stadium seats and fell backwards, falling right threw the seating and over the edge of the Brawl Stadium and into thin air, roaring the entire way down.

Kirby and Zelda waited for a moment, half-expecting the herbaceous monster to reappear. When it was clear that he wouldn't, both heroes sighed deeply in relief.

"Well, Kirby," said Zelda, smiling at her companion, "this has been one strange day, hasn't it? I wonder what else is going to pop out and attack us."

Now, she really ought to know better than to say things like that.

No sooner were the words out of her mouth when another figure – much smaller than Petey Piranha, but just as ugly – landed behind them. He was short, stout and smelly. He was dressed like some kind of colorblind biker with pink leather pants, a dark blue shirt and a denim jacket. A yellow bike helmet was on his head with matching fingerless gloves on his hands. On his face, below a pair of beady eyes, a bulbous nose, and a jagged mustache was a wide, toothy, and definitely unfriendly grin.

**WARIO**

"Mario! Where are you?" screamed the villain. His arms waved about in a grand gesture. "Come out and face me. Today we settle our battle once and for all. Come out and face your destiny!"

"He isn't here."

"Huh?"

Wario turned towards Princess Zelda who was looking at the short villain with a mix of contempt and disgust. "I said, Mario is not here. We do not know where he is." Kirby nodded in agreement.

"Lies!" shouted Wario dramatically. "You cannot fool me. I demand that you bring him out now so he can taste defeat at my hands."

Zelda pinched the bridge of her nose. She was tired from fighting Petey Piranha and that giant ship was still on the loose. She didn't have time for this. "Look, Mario was attacked by that giant plant and was blasted out of the stadium."

"Seriously?" Wario visibly deflated at this news. "Oh man! I come all this way and that snotty little plumber has the nerve to get beaten by an overgrown weed? How inconsiderate!" While he was ranting, Wario had turned his back on Zelda and Kirby. He paused for a moment in thought before slowly turning around, his sinister smile fixed back on his face.

"Well, since Mario's not here, I guess I'll have to settle for the two of you." Wario pulled out a rifle that was easily as big as he was. The gun was colored black and looked very high tech with a barrel that resembled a dragon's mouth.

Kirby and Zelda immediately assumed a fighting stance. That made Wario pause. These two warriors had just defeated a giant plant monster. That didn't mean they could beat him, of course, but still… That's when Wario noticed Princess Peach behind him, still picking herself up off the floor after having fallen out of Petey's cage.

Always go for the easy target. Wario redirected his gun at Peach and pulled the trigger. Energy gathered in the barrel, lights blinked along the sides and the entire gun glowed from some dark power within. Kirby and Zelda moved to stop Wario, but it was too late. A black arrow shaped beam shot out of the rifle and struck a shocked Peach right in the stomach. The blow was so powerful it lifted her into the air and when she came back down – Instant Trophification.

"Mario's sweetheart; not a bad consolation prize." Wario grabbed the Peach trophy, careful not to touch the gold base and reanimate her. He gave a final laugh at Kirby and Zelda's horror stricken faces before riding one of those floating platforms out of the stadium.

"Stop!"

Zelda dashed after the retreating villain with Kirby close behind. As he ran, the Star Warrior couldn't help feeling like they were forgetting something. Oh, yeah. The pulsing orb thing with the timer on it. The timer which now had only seven seconds remaining. A quick whistle and Kirby's own flying platform – his Shooting Star – appeared alongside him. Kirby jumped on and grabbed Zelda before zooming out of the stadium just before the timer reached zero.

There was a brilliant flash of light, but instead of an explosion, a great ball of dark energy emerged from the bomb, expanding exponentially until it consumed the entire stadium. Kirby and Zelda looked back on the sight with a terrible awe at the incredible power that single sphere had held. It was a good thing the audience had been evacuated successfully. But what was the purpose of that dark energy? Where had it come from? There was only one way to get answers and so Kirby steered the Shooting Star in the direction of Wario and that mysterious battleship.

* * *

Pit saw it all through the magical basin in Angel Land. The Primids. The giant plant. And the dark bubble that now engulfed the stadium. Even from high above, even through the basin, the young angel could feel the dark power and evil force that had expanded out of that bomb.

"By the Light!" Pit exclaimed as he watched the scene unfold, a feeling of helplessness surrounding him and Pit had never been one to sit back and do nothing.

One little problem; he couldn't leave Angel Land. Not without permission. The higher-ups dealt out some pretty harsh punishment for that. Pit could go and explain what was happening, but he was young and he knew the older advisors and council members wouldn't listen to him, despite his past heroics. A shiver ran up Pit's spine as he realized he might also have to admit that he was using the Viewing Basin. Not good.

Still…"I've got to do something." He looked desperately around the empty hall, half expecting a solution to simply pop out at him. Even when it did, he wasn't prepared for it.

"What are you doing, Pit?"

The voice was soft and gentle, but it almost scared the wings off Pit. He turned around and saw a bright yellow light at the far end of the hall. From that light emerged a tall, elegant woman in a flowing golden dress. A crown of golden branches sat on her head. Light green hair flowed down her back almost to the floor.

"Palutena," breathed Pit, momentarily shocked that the Goddess of Light was standing right in front of him. The boy angel shook himself out of his trance and kneeled, head bowed, before the stunning figure. "My Lady."

"You were using the Viewing Basin."

It wasn't a question. And there was no sternness in her voice. Yet Pit cringed in shame and refused to look up. "Well…I, uh…I was just…"

Ignoring Pit's ramblings, the Goddess continued, "Then you must be aware of the danger that now threatens the world."

"Uh…yes?" Pit didn't know where this was going, but he didn't seem to be getting punished.

"The land of mortals is being invaded by an unknown entity, one whose ultimate purpose even I cannot divine," Palutena said in a worried tone. "All I have been able to determine is that it hails from a place called Subspace."

"I've never heard of such a place," said Pit.

"It is a land of darkness and chaos that exists in tandem with our own universe. Those creatures that appeared at the stadium – the Primids – were made from the very essence of Subspace. As was the energy contained within the explosive device. The stadium and the area around it are now lost to us and such an event will not be unique. More will follow."

The young angel recoiled in horror. A sudden vision of dark spheres swallowing everything around swam in his mind's eye. "Is there no way to stop this?"

"Only by defeating the entity behind these attacks, can our world be restored."

Pit pumped his fist in the air and cracked a wide smile. "The mortal heroes will kick this entity thing to the curb. I mean…," in a more formal voice, he said, "They will surely vanquish this evil."

The Goddess smiled at her charge's youthful enthusiasm. "Yes, the morals will fight, but they know not what they deal with. They will need help."

Pit held his breath. Was Palutena saying what he thought she was saying?

The Goddess held out her hand and a ball of light appeared which transformed into a blue and yellow bow.

"The Sacred Bow of Palutena." Pit reverently held out his own hand and the bow obediently floated into it. This was the weapon Pit had used to defeat the Dark Goddess Medusa. As soon as his fingers touched the handle, a warm tingle flowed down his arm into his body; an old friend saying hello again.

The Goddess of Light waved her arms again and a set of tall double doors opened up, streaming golden light into the hall.

"Go now, Pit. The fate of this world rests not just in your hands, but the hands of heroes everywhere."

"I won't let you down, My Lady," said Pit as he rose to his feet.

"I know," Palutena said with a warm smile. "And, let's keep this using-the-Viewing-Basin-when-you're-not-supposed-to thing our little secret."

"Oh, right. Thanks." With one last sheepish grin, Pit ran to the open doors and jumped out into the infinite sky. Oh, how he had missed the outside world. The wind in his hair. The sun on his face. He twisted and looped through the clouds, whooping with joy all the while.

But he didn't have time for fun. He was on a mission. He had to act fast. Folding his wings against his back, Pit dove like a falcon through the forest of clouds down to the mortal world where a powerful evil awaited him.

"Look out, Subspace. I'm coming for you."

* * *

Pit wasn't the only person who had witnessed the horrific events at the stadium. Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, within a small, modest house that had a large pipe for a chimney, was a party of Toadstools all crowded around the television. They had been watching the Exhibition Match at the Brawl Stadium and had, of course, been cheering for the hometown favorite.

Among these feisty fungi was a human who bore a resemblance to Mario with the same dark hair, bushy mustache and bulbous nose. This man, however, was taller, leaner and wore a green shirt and cap instead of red.

**LUIGI**

Mario's younger brother had wanted to go to the tournament to watch the fight in person, but the invitation had been for Mario only and, despite the plumber hero's best efforts, he had not been able to secure Luigi a seat. Mario knew how disappointed his bro was and, in an attempt to cheer him up, had explained that someone needed to stay behind to look after the Mushroom Kingdom while he was gone. After all, the place had more daily Koopa Troopa attacks than there were traffic jams in Brooklyn.

Luigi wholeheartedly agreed with Mario's argument, knowing that it wasn't just some fake flattery to placate him. His brother trusted him to look after the kingdom, at least for a little while, and Luigi felt honored for that. He also felt more than a little nervous. Even though he was one of the famous Mario Bros., he knew he wasn't the hero his big brother was.

Luckily, no one had seen hide nor shell of a Troopa all day, so Luigi was able to kick back and invite some friends over to watch the competition on TV. He had been cheering right along with the Toadstools during the fight and practically jumped through the roof when Mario won. Like there was ever any doubt. But all that excitement turned to dread when that mysterious ship appeared and then despair when Mario got blasted out of the stadium.

All the Toadstools went nuts – screaming and hollering and panicking. They ran around the room in chaos, tipping over furniture and smashing into each other. Luigi wasn't paying any attention to them. His blue eyes were glued to the TV as the subspace bomb exploded and the Brawl Stadium was consumed by the dark energy.

"Mario needs me." It was such a small voice that none of the Toads noticed it. "Mario needs me!" Much louder this time and every Shroom in the room stopped dead and turned to look at Luigi. The younger plumber had a determined and angry frown, which looked unbelievably out of character.

"Mario's in trouble and I have to help him! I'm coming, Big Bro!" The Shrooms made way as Luigi marched through the room, opened the door and stomped through, slamming the door behind him. Just then, the front door– which, incidentally, was to the immediate right of the door Luigi went through – opened and another Toadstool entered the house with a wide smile.

"Sorry I'm late, guys. Did I miss anything?"

The second door opened and Luigi stepped out with a very serious look on his face and addressed the Shrooms. "In case you're all wondering, I did not just accidently walk into the closet. I went to get my umbrella," he said, holding up the green and white striped object. "It may rain." Preserving as much of his dignity as he could, Luigi left the house with his head held high, leaving behind a room full of worried Toadstools.

"Mario is so doomed," squeaked one of them as the others all nodded in agreement.

* * *

_Not a great start for the heroes, is it? Peach captured. Mario missing. And they don't even know who they're fighting. Maybe they can get some help in Chapter 3, when we'll travel to the depths of the jungle and the void of outer space. Stay tuned._


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to all who read and reviewed my story and special thanks to EggplantWitch for pointing out I was spelling Palutena wrong in Chapter 2. I've since fixed that - a little nitpicky on my part, perhaps, but it's mistakes like that that just bug me. Anyway, here is Chapter 3. Enjoy. I don't own Smash Bros. or any of the characters._

* * *

**Chapter 3 – That's the Second Biggest Monkey Head I've Ever Seen**

Out in the vastness of outer space, four small fighter ships made their way towards an uncharted sector of the galaxy. The ships, called Arwings, appeared to be made entirely of triangular shapes, giving them the look of a set of flying blades. Light blue exhaust streamed from the noiseless engines and the ships rocketed past planet after planet. Normally, the pilots of these ships would stop to have a look at these strange new worlds. They were explorers, after all. Today, though, they had a much more important destination in mind.

Sitting in the lead ship was a red fox wearing a green jumpsuit, a white fighter pilot's jacket and red boots. A laser pistol was strapped to his right hip while a reflector shield generator hung on his left.

**FOX**

"Stay sharp, everybody," commanded the leader of the Star Fox team. "We're officially in unfamiliar and potentially hostile space. Slippy, whatcha got for me?"

In the ship to Fox's immediate right, a short, young frog gazed at the readouts on his ship's command board. Long green fingers flew across the control panel buttons with practiced ease. "It's still there, Fox. The warship that attacked Corneria is still hovering within the Epsilon Quadrant, just barely within our sensor range."

"Keep an eye on it, Slip. Any word from the other teams, Peppy?"

The image of a wizened, grey rabbit appeared on Fox's communication screen. Even though he was the oldest member of the team, Peppy Hare usually lived up to his name, but now, for the first time, he was beginning to show his age. He sadly shook his head and said, "Sorry, Fox. No word from Husky or Bulldog Squadron. They were on an intercept course with the ship and should have reached it long ago. If we haven't heard from them by now…"

Fox simply nodded, not really needing Peppy to finish that sentence. He knew all the fighters in both Husky and Bulldog Squadrons. Some of them he counted as his close friends and some of the best pilots in the business. The Star Fox team had not been present when Corneria had been attacked and by the time they had responded to the distress call, the planetary defense systems had already driven the spaceship away. The city-planet had received massive damage. The only pictures of the battle available were a few fuzzy images from some of the destroyed gun turrets, but they were enough to show the impressive scope of this new enemy. No matter how good a pilot you were, there was always the chance of being shot down. Fox mentally berated himself; it was way too early for thoughts like that.

"I'm sure the other fighters are fine," Fox said, as much to convince himself as his team.

"But they're going to need backup from the best." Peppy's image on Fox's communication screen was replaced by a blue-feathered falcon also wearing a red jumpsuit and white fighter pilot's jacket.

**FALCO**

He continued in a voice overflowing with confidence. "Might as well tell Husky and Bulldog to turn tail. We can handle this ourselves."

"Let's not get reckless, Falco," admonished Fox. "That war hip destroyed nearly half of Corneria's capitol city before the defense fleets could chase it off."

"What's the matter, McCloud?" taunted Falco with a smirk. "Don't tell me you're chickening out of a fight."

Fox grit his teeth, but did not immediately react to what some might judge as an insult, but was actually Falco's idea of a friendly jibe. Although Fox considered the feathered ace pilot a close friend, the two of them shared a rivalry that could often get the better of both their competitive natures. Falco was an excellent pilot, but his recklessness often led him into dangerous situations, usually dragging Fox along with him. As leader of the team, Fox wanted to set a good example and would try to reign in Falco's wild tendencies during missions. More often than not, though, Fox would end up trying to outdo his friend with one daring maneuver after another.

Today was no exception. A similar smirk grew on Fox's face as he said to Falco, "I just don't want you to get shot down right away, Falco. Maybe you can cause some descent damage to the enemy this time."

"That last battle on Katina doesn't count," growled Falco. "My Arwing had been glitching since the moment we took off for that mission."

"Excuses, excuses," mocked Fox. "Just don't start whining when I score the first hit on that warship."

"I accept that challenge!"

"I swear, it's like I'm working with children sometimes," grumbled Peppy.

"Whoa, Fox!" Once again, Slippy's face graced Fox's communication screen, but this time the young frog looked a bit panicky. "I just detected a sudden energy surge, also in the Epsilon Quadrant."

Fox was instantly all business. "Is it coming from the warship?"

"No, I'm still detecting that separately."

"Another ship?" asked Peppy. He sincerely prayed that wasn't the case.

"I don't think so," said Slippy. Peppy's relief was short-lived. "I'm not sure what this is. I've never seen anything like it. All I can tell from the sensors is that the energy is dense, dark and massive."

"Where is it coming from?"

Slippy hesitated a second before relaying, "It's right next to the warship's location."

Fox decided he definitely did not like the sound of that. He had seen the damage that ship could cause, but nothing on Corneria seemed to suggest a weapon that could generate the kind of energy Slippy was describing. For sure, the Arwings could not generate that kind of power. Not even close. This mission suddenly felt like one big death trap.

Still, honor and duty and all that. And Fox was not about to lose face in front of his team. "Alright guys, we're going in. Eyes open. Tight formation. Let's take out that warship and investigate this mysterious energy."

"Can't let you do that, Star Fox."

Laser blasts rained down from above and the Star Fox team was forced to scatter to avoid being hit.

"What the heck?" exclaimed Peppy. "Where did that come from?"

Fox looked up through the window of his Arwing and saw four ships heading towards his position. They were shaped similar to Arwings, but painted black on black so that they were nearly invisible against the backdrop of outer space.

Another image popped up on Fox's communication screen. This time it was a wolf with dark grey fur. White fur covered his muzzle and formed a kind of mohawk on his head. A blue patch covered his left eye and an arrogant snarl curled on his lips.

**WOLF**

"Star Wolf," Fox said with a growl that could match any lupine animal. "What are you doing here?"

Wolf spoke like they were two old friends having a chat instead of mortal enemies. "The same thing you're doing, I expect."

For entirely different reasons. Of that, Fox was sure.

"You detected that enormous energy signature, didn't you?" asked Wolf innocently. He didn't wait for a reply. "So did Andross. A power like that would go a long way towards advancing his experiments."

"And he sent you to retrieve it," Fox finished for him. Shaking his head, the vulpine pilot marveled at both Andross' ambition and Wolf's stupidity. An unknown, potential dangerous energy is detected and their first thought is to grab it and expose themselves to it. Unbelievable. It would serve them right if that energy mutated them into a three-headed chipmunk or something. Still, even though they were enemies, Fox felt compelled to offer some advice.

"Listen, Wolf," said Fox with just the faintest touch of true distress, "you have no idea what that energy is. None of us do. And if it's connected to that warship that attacked Corneria…"

"Ah, yes, the ship," interrupted Wolf. "We had heard the rumors. Well, we may just have to take that as well."

"Gah!" huffed Fox. "Wolf, listen to reason. You don't stand a chance against that thing."

"Why, Fox, your concern is touching," Wolf said with mock thankfulness. "Completely unnecessary, but touching."

"Oh, Fox, give it up," said Falco. "Let the guy go get himself blown up. At least we won't have to deal with him anymore."

"Yes, about that," said Wolf. The weapons on all four of the Star Wolf ships were powering up. "We didn't expect to run into Star Fox way out here, but opportunity knocks, as they say." Star Wolf's team fired their lasers. The Star Fox team retaliated and soon eight ships were engaged in a small, but fierce space battle.

Fox grit his teeth and tensed his muscles trying to keep his Arwing from spinning out from the beating it was receiving. In return, Fox had scored several hits, mostly on Wolf's ship. The ace pilot always singled Fox out during these battles. It took all of Fox's flying skills to get Wolf off his tail and in his sights. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Slippy burst onto his communication screen again.

"Fox! The warship is moving!"

All thoughts of Star Wolf were instantly forgotten. "Slippy, can you still track it?"

"Only for another minute or so, if we stay in this location," the young frog answered. "After that, it'll be too far for my sensors to pick up."

Fox silently cursed to himself. If they didn't leave now, they quite possible might never find the ship again. But Wolf and his team weren't going to just let them fly away. The team leader made a quick decision and patched his com-link through to the rest of the team. "Can you guys handle Star Wolf on your own?"

"Is Andross ugly?" said Falco sarcastically. "I can handle them by myself if you want."

"Fox, you're not thinking of taking on that ship by yourself?" Peppy asked sternly.

"Just keep Wolf and his goons busy, guys," said Fox as his Arwing pulled away from the dogfight. "Catch up with me as soon as you can."

The turbo boosters of his Arwing fired and Fox flew out of there at top speed. The Star Wolf team tried to follow, but Slippy, Peppy, and Falco blocked them. As the fight continued, Fox's teammates sincerely hoped that their friend would be able to stay safe until they caught up with him.

* * *

"Come on, come on! Hurry up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

"Get the lead out of your shell."

Two Koopa Troopas crashed nosily through the dense vegetation of the jungle. The yellow turtles each wore a green shell on their backs, green shoes and matching expressions of fear. In their hands was a large pile of plump, yellow bananas.

"Hurry! Hurry!"

"Oh, geez, he's right behind us!"

The humidity in the air was oppressive. The swarms of bugs formed a veil in front of their eyes so they could hardly see where they were going. Tree roots and soggy soil grabbed at their feet, threatening to pull them down. Still, they ran nonstop at top speed, desperately trying to get away from whatever was chasing them.

Finally, the two Troopas burst out of the trees, lungs near to collapsing from breathing so hard. They were standing on a cliff overlooking an endless sea of green leaves. A narrow space between the trees and the cliff edge provided a clear, but treacherous road where a wooden cart filled with bananas sat waiting. In the driver's seat was another green shelled Troopa lounging back, clearly asleep.

Instead of horses, attached to the wagon were two Goombas – short little brown-colored mushroom-shaped creatures with permanent scowls and needle sharp teeth. The thugs of the Koopa Troop, ready to pounce at a moment's notice on any unsuspecting Toadstool. They were speaking to each other in deep, guttural voices.

"Well, personally, I find Nietzsche to be a bit trite and far too pedestrian for my tastes," said the Goomba on the right.

"I hate to seem disagreeable, old boy," said the left-side Goomba, "but I've always found the vernacular of Nietzsche's text to be quite the engaging read. Much like Aristotle and his writings."

"True, the Greeks were quite the authors, weren't they?"

The two Troopas who had ran out of the jungle dashed over to the wagon, threw their bananas onto the pile and leapt onto the back.

"Hey, Morty, let's get out of here."

The sleeping Troopa's only response was snoring as he continued sleeping.

"Yo, Shell for Brains. Let's move!" shouted one of the Troopas, flinging a banana at the driver's head.

The driver snorted and jerked awake. He shot an angry look over his shoulder at his two friends. "What'd you do that for?"

"We gotta go now!"

"What's the rush?"

An ominous roar echoed over the cliffs, shaking the trees and scattering flocks of birds into the air.

The Troopa who threw the banana pointed behind him and said, "That's the rush. Now move!"

"Right." The driver picked up his whip and flicked it at the Goombas.

"I read the most fascinating article yesterday concerning…"

CRACK!

"Yipe!" Both Goombas shouted as the whip's tip snapped not more than an inch from their backsides.

"Mush!" shouted the driver.

"Oh, well," sighed the left hand Goomba, "Duty calls.

CRACK!

"Move it, you lazy blobs."

"First chance we get, what say we bite his head off."

"Excellent, old chap, simply excellent."

The Goomba's little feet were a blur as they motored down the winding mountain path. The Troopa with the whip wasn't the best driver. The wooden wagon creaked and squealed in protest as it hit every bump in the road and twice they came dangerously close to going over the edge. The two Troopas on the back hardly seemed to notice. They just kept glancing behind them and shouting for the Goombas to go faster.

"What exactly are you guys so scared of?" the driver called back.

"We're just making sure he isn't following us."

"He who?"

Cue the answer.

From the jungle directly in front of the wagon burst a huge gorilla. Short brown hair covered a body that rippled with muscles. His hands were as big as the Troopa's shells. His feet could easily stomp a whole squad of Goombas flat. His only clothing was a red neck tie with the initials DK stitched in yellow.

**DONKEY KONG**

The Koopa driver tugged on the reigns, bringing the wagon to a screeching halt right in front of the gorilla. Donkey Kong didn't even flinch as the wagon full of bananas and bad guys almost crashed into him. He looked down menacingly at the terrified Troopas.

"I'm only going to say this once," growled DK. "Hand over my bananas and I may decide not to pound you."

"No one talks to the Koopa Troop that way," said one of the Troopas bravely, right before he ducked behind the pile of yellow fruit.

"Fine, have it your way," said Donkey Kong as he cracked his knuckles.

"I say," said the right Goomba. "I do believe this primate means us bodily harm."

"I concur. It is time to show this primitive beast what kind of raw carnage Goombas are capable of."

"Have at thee, you uncivilized Darwinian vulgarity!"

One of the Goombas launched itself at Donkey Kong and sank its tiny, but sharp teeth into the gorilla's foot. DK looked at the Goomba like it was a pesky mosquito. A flick of his finger sent the Goomba soaring over the cliff. A backhanded swipe took care of the other.

Despite this display of force, the two Troopas who had stolen the bananas somewhere found the courage to attack Donkey Kong as well. Pulling their arms, legs, and heads inside their shells, they launched themselves as DK who grabbed the shells in midair and slammed them into the ground so hard they were buried on impact. DK turned back towards the driver.

"Take 'em back. I don't even like bananas." The remaining Troopa dropped the wagon's reigns and his whip as he ran off as fast as he could.

DK smiled to himself over the easy victory, but that smile turned to a frown as he surveyed the pile of fruit in the wagon. "This isn't all the bananas that are missing," he murmured. "Where are the rest?"

* * *

The last two Primids burst apart in a shower of shadows. Pit landed lightly on a rock outcropping as he watched the remaining Shadow Bugs dissolve into nothingness. He had been flying through the cloud layer just below Angel Land when he spotted the warship heading east and moving fast. Pit didn't think he had been noticed and was debating on whether following the massive ship was a good idea when the bomb bay doors opened and Shadow Bugs had rained down.

The young angel had quickly found himself surrounded by Primids. His flying ability, however, gave him more than enough advantage to defeat the entire group. It had taken some time, though, and as a result, the warship had passed out of sight.

_Guess I'll just have to keep flying and hope I can catch up to it_, the angel thought. He spread his wings in preparation to take off when something caught his eye. Pit gazed out into the sea of clouds and spotted a bit of color in the otherwise completely white world. He cautiously walked up to the object until he could recognize it. It was Mario in trophy form.

Pit touched the trophy's golden base and Mario was revived, laying in the clouds – aching, but in one piece.

Groaning, Mario slowly pushed himself onto his hands and knees. "Wha…what happened?" Visions of the Primids and Petey Piranha flashed through his mind so fast his head ached. "Oh…right." The plumber hero shook his head, trying to clear his mind when a hand entered his vision. He looked up to see Pit smiling down on him. He looked at his surroundings and saw clouds in every direction with the occasional mountain peak poking through.

"Clouds…an angel…" Mario dropped his head in dismay. "Oh, no."

"Don't worry," laughed Pit. "You're not dead."

Mario brought his head back up. Pit was still offering his hand. Mario grabbed it and allowed the angel to help him up. He was a little wobbly on his feet, but recovered quickly.

"Thanks," the plumber hero muttered. "I'm…"

"Mario, I know. I'm Pit. I saw your fight at the Brawl Stadium. Congratulations."

"Thanks, I guess," said Mario. "Although, I can't say for sure that I deserve it after what happened."

"Yeah, I saw that too," said Pit sympathetically. Then he chuckled, "A little more force and you would have blown right past Angel Land and ended up in orbit."

Mario looked up ruefully at the smiling angel, not appreciating the joke at his expense. "Thanks for reviving me. I've got to get back to Brawl Stadium. Petey Piranha might still be there."

"He's not," said Pit. "No one's there now. In fact, the stadium isn't even there anymore."

"What do you mean?" asked a very worried Mario. "Where's Peach?"

"It's kind of a long story."

"No time. Just give me the cheat code version."

"Basically, Princess Peach was captured and Kirby went with Princess Zelda after that giant spaceship."

Mario felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. His legs wobbled again and he almost fell into the clouds. Pit saw this and moved to help steady the plumber, but he just waved the angel off. Once he recovered himself, Mario spoke in a business-like manner. "Kirby is a strong fighter and Zelda's no slouch. They'll be okay, but I've got to find Peach." He strode purposefully forward.

"I'll go with you," said Pit as Mario walked past him.

"Thanks, but you'd only slow me down," Mario said over his shoulder. "Besides, I work better alone."

"Well, do you even know where Princess Peach is right now?" asked Pit innocently. "Or who took her?"

It was only then that Mario realized that no, he didn't know where she was and he had no idea where to start looking. He turned around and saw the smug look on the winged boy behind him. Looked like he wouldn't be going solo on this adventure.

"I guess I've got time for that long story after all."

* * *

Donkey Kong leaned over the side of the cliff as he watched the strange vehicle speed down the mountain. It was long and rectangular, had two cannons mounted on the back, and instead of rolling on wheels, it was floating just above the ground. Another one of those strange yellow turtle creatures was driving. Most importantly, the vehicle was piled high with the rest of the stolen bananas.

The gorilla hero smacked his beefy hands against his muscular chest and roared down to the thief. The Troopa looked up the cliff and blanched, having perfectly understood DK's primal threat. In a panic, the Troopa fired both cannons and two Bullet Bills looped around in the air and targeted right in on DK.

Donkey Kong saw the incoming missiles, but defiantly refused to move. As the Bullet Bills got closer, he raised his arms in a defensive position, but he wasn't really worried about getting hurt. After all, he had backup.

From directly behind the great ape, a younger, smaller monkey burst out of the trees, leapt up and, using DK as a springboard, propelled himself into the air. This new simian also had brown fur with a long prehensile tail. He wore a red shirt and baseball cap.

**DIDDY KONG**

Diddy drew two pistols made of wood and took careful aim at the Bullets. He fired and two peanuts came spinning out of the gun barrels and collided with the Bullet Bills, blowing them to pieces. Still in midair, Diddy did several flips and spins – purely for the sake of showing off – and landed perfectly on his feet next to his best friend in the whole world.

"Whoa, DK, did you see that? Huh? Did ya? Did ya? I shot at them like BLAM BLAM and they exploded all like KA-BOOM! It was so cool!" Diddy Kong danced around as he talked like a hyperactive little kid, his voice full of energy.

"It sure was, Little Buddy," said Donkey Kong indulgently as he patted Diddy on the head in a brotherly manner. "But now we have to catch those bananas."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Diddy ran right to the edge of the cliff and leapt off without even looking down. "Woo hoo!"

DK just smiled and shook his head as he jumped right behind the younger monkey. The Troopa fired more Bullet Bills, but Diddy's peanut pistols made short work of them. Grabbing tree branches and vines to slow their decent, both primates landed directly in the hover car's path.

"Stand back, Little Buddy."

"Oh boy, oh boy," squealed Diddy as he edged away from his large friend. "This is gonna be good."

The hover car came tearing around the curve and the Troopa clearly saw Donkey Kong blocking his path. Instead of slowing down, he revved up the throttle and put the pedal to the metal. Coming up: one serving of pressed primate.

DK never even flinched. He planted his feet, braced his arms, and when that car came barreling down on him, he took it head on. With only a grunt, the great ape grabbed hold of the hover car and stopped it dead in its tracks. The Troopa driver tried to push the car's engine even further, but he only managed to nudge DK a couple of inches before the gorilla threw the hover car into the side of the mountain. The bananas spilled all over the road and the Troopa collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

Donkey Kong beat his chest and roared in triumph. "Oh, yeah!" shouted Diddy Kong. "That's what you get for messing with the baddest apes in the jungle.

"Is that so?"

The two simians turned around and saw another turtle slowly coming towards them. This turtle was huge; maybe even bigger than Donkey Kong. His green shell was lined with rows of spikes. He wore studded bands on this wrists, arms and neck. Two horns shot out of his head, framing a mass of fiery red hair. Cruel orange eyes looked upon the pair of heroes.

**BOWSER**

"Who are you?" asked Donkey Kong cautiously. His fists tightened as the leader of the Koopa Troop stepped ever closer.

"That's not important," said Bowser dismissively. He stopped just ten feet away from DK and Diddy. "What is important is that I've been trying to meet you all day."

"Me?"

"Yeah," grunted Bowser. "My Troopas spent all day searching this stupid jungle and when they finally found your little village, you weren't home."

"Next time, make an appointment," said Diddy.

Ignoring the younger monkey, Bowser continued, "I finally had to resort to Grand Theft Banana to flush you out."

"Well, I'm here now," said the gorilla, cracking his knuckles. "What say we settle this?"

"My thoughts exactly." Bowser bared his claws, as hard as steel and as sharp as knives.

"I got this one, DK," shouted Diddy Kong. He jumped forward, putting himself between Bowser and the gorilla hero, and struck a cheesy kung-fu stance. "Hi Ya!"

"Oh, please." Bowser pulled a long black rifle from behind his back, aiming point blank at Diddy.

Donkey Kong froze in sudden fear. He couldn't let his best little buddy be hurt. There was only one thing he could do. Before Bowser could pull the trigger, DK landed a punch right on Diddy's backside, sending the simian sidekick flying through the air and out of harm's range. Unfortunately, that put DK smack dab into Bowser's sights. The Koopa King fired the black arrow beam at DK.

"NOOOO!" Diddy Kong's last view of his friend before he flew out of sight was of Bowser standing over the jungle hero's Trophified form.

* * *

"Subspace, huh?" Mario had listened dutifully, if somewhat impatiently, while Pit relayed everything that Palutena had told him about the other dimension, the dark energy and the entity behind it all. "And you have no idea who this Big Boss is?"

"None," Pit was embarrassed to admit. "All we know for sure is if this guy isn't stopped, the world is a goner."

"And, apparently, Wario is working with him," mused Mario. He rubbed his chin as he thought back to all the times he and Wario had clashed in the past. "I guess that really shouldn't surprise me. Wario has far more greed than brains. He's one olive short of an antipasto. And he'd be the first one to jump if someone offered him even the tiniest bit of power."

"And who knows how many more flunkies this entity from Subspace has?" said Pit desperately. He looked Mario right in the eye and said, "Look, I know you prefer to work alone, but this is a bigger situation than what you're used to. You're gonna need my help."

Mario wasn't quite convinced of that. If he was going to work with anyone, he preferred it to be his brother, Luigi. There wasn't enough time to trek back to get him, though. At least he didn't have to worry about the Mushroom Kingdom; Luigi could protect that well enough. Peach was the one who needed his help right now. The Italian hero sighed, resigned to the fact that he really didn't have a choice.

"Alright, let's team up, but you better not slow me down."

"I don't think that will be a problem," said Pit good-naturedly. With two flaps of his wings, he shot up into the air, zoomed around in a loop and did a couple of flips before coming back to hover in front of an impressed-looking Mario. The young angel offered a hand and said, "Grab hold. I should be able to carry you while flying."

Mario gently, but forcefully, pushed the hand away. "Thanks, but I'll manage." With a mighty leap, Mario was on his way, jumping almost as high as Pit had flown, using cloud platforms and mountain tops as springboards. An astonished Pit had to struggle to catch up as both heroes headed towards the giant spaceship and an unknown enemy.

* * *

_Hope you liked it. _ _Fox will return in the next chapter and we'll see where Kirby and Zelda have gotten to. For those who are interested in what the Goomba's were talking about, Nietzsche was a 19th-century philosopher and Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who studied under Plato. Darwin was an English naturalist famous for his theories of evolution. Just my way of injecting a little culture._

_I might not be able to update much over the holidays, but I promise at least one more before next year. As always, reviews are welcome. Happy Thanksgiving!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hello everyone. Well, here is the chapter I promised to put up before the year was over. I actually had to rewrite the second half before I was happy with it. Thanks to everyone that's been reading and reviewing. Please, enjoy. I do not own Smash Bros. Wish I did, but I don't._

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Do A Barrel Roll**

"Stop. Stop! Can you please fly a little straighter?"

Kirby gave no indication that he had heard Zelda's anxious plea. Since the events at the Brawl Stadium, the two heroes had been following the massive warship, trying to ascertain where it was going and how they could stop it. So far, they had not been able to answer either of those questions. Zelda had briefly considered that their time might be better spent looking for Mario. The hero could have been injured in his sudden ejection from the stadium or he could have run into more of those shadowy Primids. She reasoned, however, that he would be able to take care of himself, if even half of Peach's bragging was to be believed.

No, the best thing they could do now was to keep tabs on the warship and try to figure out a way to stop it. Besides, Peach was still missing and the ship seemed the logical choice of where she would have been taken. So, Kirby and Zelda stayed on the ship's trail, flying low on Kirby's Shooting Star and keeping pace, hoping they could keep from getting spotted.

Despite the dire circumstances, Zelda found herself enjoying the flight. It was a new experience for her. The wind whipped her hair around her face and the soft sunlight made her pale skin glow. The pink tinted clouds wrapped around her like a security blanket. For the briefest of moments, Zelda could close her eyes and forget the troubles of the world existed.

"Aaah! Be careful!"

Then reality came rushing back to her as the Shooting Star below her tipped at an impossible angle. The muscles in her arms strained as she clung to the sides of the star, desperately trying not to get thrown off. The horizon tilted until it was almost vertical before leveling out again. Zelda slowly unclenched one arm to hold it against her stomach while the other kept a firm hold just in case.

"Must you weave about like that?"

Kirby looked back at the princess like she was daft, clearly not seeing the problem at all.

Hyrule's princess just sighed. "Never mind. Just get us closer." With a mental command from Kirby and a sickly groan from Zelda, the Shooting Star put on a burst of speed. Zelda concentrated on keeping the contents of her stomach from seeing the light of day as the duo slowly closed the gap to their quarry.

"We have to find a way onto the airship without being seen." Zelda squinted through the wisps of clouds and then pointed to the right side of the ship. "There. Head for that convenient set of platforms leading to the only open entranceway on an otherwise securely sealed warship."

Kirby nodded and furrowed his brow as he willed his flying star ever faster. By the time they had reached the first platform, the Star Warrior was panting and sweating. It had been a long flight and now Kirby was barely able to keep up with the ship's relentless pace. The pink hero slumped, his energy gone, which caused the Shooting Star to lose altitude fast.

Before they could descend any farther, Zelda grabbed Kirby and leapt for the platform. It was a pretty big jump and the princess almost didn't make it. She landed on the very edge, balancing precariously on one foot for a few agonizing seconds before she managed to shift her weight and land face down on the platform.

The wind seemed so much worse on the airship. It blew harsh and cold, trying to force the two heroes off the platform. Since Kirby was so light and so tired, he would have been sent tumbling to the ground if Zelda hadn't kept a firm hold on him.

"Kirby, are you alright?"

The pink hero looked exhausted, but nodded. They couldn't afford to dally on the outside of the warship, but Zelda was willing to wait a few moments to allow her friend to recuperate. While he did, the princess turned her attention to the platforms.

They weren't anything fancy or even well constructed. Just a series of metal plates stuck to the side of the airship at varying heights, forming a rough series of steps. It seemed they were added as an afterthought or perhaps constructed much later with whatever material was at hand. They didn't really blend in with the rest of the ship.

Soft footsteps and a small squeak let Zelda know that Kirby had regained his energy and was now standing at her side. She looked down to see the pink warrior also studying the path before them.

"Are you ready to continue?"

A nod and determined look was Kirby's answer.

Teleporting up the stairs would be fastest, but also take the most energy and tire her out as Kirby was. Better to go with option two. Calling upon one of her most important spells, Zelda spun in a burst of light and suddenly she wasn't Zelda anymore. Gone was her silk dress, long brown hair and dainty air. In their places was a blue and black ninja outfit, blond hair in a single long braid and the unmistakable presence of a warrior. Red eyes, not blue, glared out from above a cloth that covered the rest of her face.

**SHEIK**

Kirby jumped back, a bit startled at the unexpected transformation. He calmed down when Sheik pulled down the face mask to show that she was, indeed, still Zelda. She seldom used this transforming trick – Link was usually the only warrior Hyrule needed – but it still had its uses. In this form, Zelda's magic powers were sorely diminished, but her physical strength and agility received a significant boost, which let her effortlessly leap across the platforms.

The lady ninja was halfway to the open door when she realized that Kirby was not right behind her. The little puffball was having some major difficulties following. He was trying to jump and float across the platforms, but he was so light, the wind would push him back and he couldn't make any headway. Quick as a flash, Sheik leapt back to the starting point.

"Need some help?' she asked the slightly embarrassed Star Warrior.

Kirby didn't respond. He just looked at Sheik for a moment before opening his mouth wide and inhaling her just like he had Mario. A single flash of light and Sheik lay dazed on the ground while Kirby was now sporting a cloth face mask complete with a mop of blond hair. Thanks to his new abilities, Kirby could now traverse the platforms with ease.

"Peach was right," Sheik said as she shook of the dizzying side effects of Kirby's special move. "That is pretty disgusting." She took off after Kirby and soon both ninjas found themselves in a long dark utility corridor. Ugly grey steel lined the walls and floor. Masses of thick cables snaked their way across the ceiling.

"We could probably do some heavy damage to the ship from right here," Sheik thought out loud as she stared up at the cables. "Have to find Peach first, though."

Taking the lead, Sheik slowly crept through the corridor. The drone of the engines was muffled, but still annoyingly loud. The floor vibrated in sync with the din, creating a symphony of squeals and scrapes as the metal plates rubbed against each other. As a result of all this noise, Sheik really had to strain her ears to listen for any approaching enemies. Even with her ninja senses on high alert, she almost missed a much softer sound underneath all the other noise.

A quick hand signal stopped both ninjas in their tracks. Kirby looked around frantically, thinking that Sheik has seen something dangerous. The transformed princess rotated her head slowly, filtering out the background noise until her ears picked up on that sound again. Yes, right there. Above and in front of her. A mechanical whirring noise and a very faint beeping, almost like an electric heartbeat.

Sheik looked up and saw the source of the sound: a small surveillance camera steadfastly sweeping the area directly in front of them. The corridor was only dimly lit and the two heroes had been staying to the shadows so it was unlikely they had been spotted. However, they weren't going to be able to go any farther with that camera there.

Kirby gave his companion a concerned look. He had seen the camera too and had come to the same conclusion. Sheik held up a finger, signaling Kirby to remain quiet, while she drew out a throwing knife from her sleeve. One well placed toss and the camera ceased to be a problem. The two heroes continued on with Sheik neutralizing every camera they came across.

Finally, they made their way to the end of the corridor and to a steel ladder leading up to a hatchway. With Sheik still in the lead, the duo scurried up and opened the hatch. Fierce wind assaulted them once again as they found themselves on the deck of the airship. The bridge of the ship soared above them like an ominous tower. The entire deck was lined with huge cannons; the smallest was at least twice as wide as any normal weapon.

"Let's head there," said Sheik, pointing to the bridge. "Maybe we can find out who is behind the attack."

Both heroes started towards the bridge, but they'd barely taken two steps before Kirby yanked on Sheik's legs, bringing her to a halt. The female ninja glared down questioningly at Kirby, who pointed out into the open sky. Sheik took a quick look, but didn't see anything. She started moving, but again, Kirby grabbed her leg and held on this time. He pointed urgently out to the horizon.

Sheik huffed impatiently, but after a second look, she saw that there was indeed something there. At first, it was just a dark speck against the backdrop of white clouds; no bigger than a bug. Slowly the object, whatever it was, got larger until Sheik and Kirby could see that it was another airship.

The female ninja's first response was panic. Bad enough that they had one deadly ship on their hands, now they had to contend with two? But that fear gradually began to subside as Sheik realized two things. First, this other ship was smaller, much smaller. She doubted it could fit more than one person comfortably. Second, the smaller ship didn't have the malicious aura surrounding it that the bigger ship seemed to. You could feel the evil just oozing out of the giant airship. The smaller ship had none of that. In fact, and this was just a hunch, but Sheik could almost sense that whoever was in that smaller ship was a friend.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the cannons all along the edge of the great warship pointed up to the oncoming smaller ship and opened fire.

* * *

_Warning. Booster fuel reserves depleted. Engine temperature within red zone._

The fight with Star Wolf had been brief, but it was still long enough to allow the mystery warship to move farther away from Corneria. Even putting petal to the metal, it had taken Fox until just now to catch up to it. The Arwing's booster rockets had been completely drained long ago and the regular engines were now in danger of overheating, but at least now he had his first visual of the enemy.

Fox had never been one to blanch or show hesitation in the face of the enemy, but now, seeing what he was up against, he could not ignore the feeling of deep dread welling up inside him. The ship was like nothing he had ever seen. The visual images certainly didn't do it justice. Even the Great Fox, which was larger than any starship in the Cornerian fleet, was dwarfed alongside this monster.

Maneuvering his Arwing towards the back of the warship and keeping his distance, Fox hoped to stay out of its line of sight while he contacted his team. "McCloud to Star Fox, McCloud to Star Fox. Peppy? Slippy? Falco? Does anyone read me?"

"Fox!" Peppy's voice was faint and Fox had trouble hearing him over the static, but at least he had gotten through. He had been afraid they'd be out of range. "Where are you?" The veteran hare pilot sounded like a stern, but worried father.

"I've got a visual of the warship," the team leader replied. "And it is immense. No sign of the other squadrons." Peppy didn't respond at first and it was in that silence that Fox noticed the sound of laser fire in the background. "Hey, are you guys still fighting Wolf? I'd have thought you'd have sent him packing by now. What's wrong, Falco not able to pick up the slack?"

"Very funny," said the falcon pilot. "For your information, Wolf called in reinforcements from Venom as soon as you left." Fox felt a twinge of anxiety at that, but it quickly disappeared as Falco continued. "We're taking care of the last of them now."

"Great job, guys. Catch up with me as soon as you can. I'm going to follow the warship, see if I tell who's behind all this. Maybe find a way to slow it down."

"You better not take that thing down before I get there," Falco shouted angrily. "I want my shot at it."

Fox couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry, Falco, there's plenty of ship for both of us."

In that same stern voice, Peppy said, "I'd tell you not to get anywhere near that ship by yourself, Fox, if I thought it would do any good. Just promise me you won't attack it alone."

"Don't worry, Peppy, I'm not going to do anything crazy."

"Famous last words." And with that, the transmission cut out.

Despite what he said to his team, Fox had every intention of stopping this rampaging warship if an opportunity presented itself. However, as he continued to observe the ship, it looked less and less likely such an opportunity would arise. There was enough weaponry on the ship to outfit a whole fleet. Make that a whole fleet of fleets. And a quick scan of the hull indicated that it was made of some kind of super strong alloy Fox had never seen before.

An air battle with this thing was definitely out of the question. This called for a subtler approach. Maybe he could find a spot to land quietly and sneak inside. He was almost out of fuel anyway. Fox pulled his Arwing along the warship's port side, keeping low to avoid detection.

Suddenly, the cannons on the ship sprang to life. Fox's instruments indicated that his Arwing was being targeted on multiple fronts. The air was soon filled with yellow laser fire.

"So much for subtle." Fox jerked back on the control stick sending his Arwing rocketing straight up into a series of loop-de-loops and barrel rolls to dodge and deflect the lasers. The size of the warship was a disadvantage in this case; it didn't have the maneuverability of the Arwing. Plus, the cannons were spaced out so far from each other that there was plenty of room for the smaller ship to slip between the shots. Fox was beginning to think he might be able to pull this off after all

What he didn't notice was the grappling gun on the ship's deck. It was able to track the Arwing's moments far better than the laser cannons could. The gun fired and a metal claw tore through the air and struck the Arwing from behind, ripping a long gash in one of the wings and taking out the engine.

_Warning. Engine damaged. Arwing unresponsive._

"You don't say," growled Fox as he struggle to regain control of his ship. He pulled and yanked at the control stick with all his might, but it remained frozen. The Arwing was caught in a tailspin. The world twisted sickeningly. Fox couldn't get his bearings; his instruments were dead. It would be a miracle if he survived this crash.

He could still see the warship, though. The grappling cable drew back almost casually as if the ship itself was enjoying watching his plight.

_If this is it_, Fox thought, _I might as well do a little damage before I go_. Aiming blindly, Fox fired his own lasers.

* * *

When the laser cannons started firing, it shook the ship's deck so badly that it was impossible for Sheik and Kirby to keep their footing. Kirby fell over onto his back while Sheik was at least able to stay on her knees. She saw the smaller ship avoid the laser only to be struck down by the grappling hook.

"Come on, Kirby," Sheik shouted over the noise of the cannons. "While the airship's crew is distracted, it will be easier to sneak inside." She felt an urge to help whoever was in that small ship, this enemy of the large airship, but there was nothing she could do. At least they had provided a diversion.

Sheik had just been able to get Kirby on his feet when the smaller ship started firing at the larger one. Looked like it wasn't going down without a fight; the female ninja had to admire that. But then she noticed that the laser blasts were coming right towards them.

Kirby saw it too. He jumped in front of Sheik to protect her, but she knew that wouldn't help. Summoning her transformation powers again, Sheik quickly changed back into Zelda and cast a spell to raise a magical shield. She was a split second too late, though. The laser hit the deck right in front of the two heroes and the blast knocked them off the ship and sent them flying into the air.

* * *

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Diddy Kong's scream could be heard from one end of the jungle to the other as he arced through the sky. His limbs thrashed about, acting on instinct, desperately trying to grab a vine or tree branch that wasn't there. His vision flashed from blue to green back to blue as he twisted out of control. Was this the end? Was he going to die? What would happen once he hit that blue ground and all his bones snapped and…

Wait. Blue ground?

SPLOOSH!

Water exploded at least twenty feet into the air when Diddy dive bombed into the lake. At first, the young Kong didn't realize where he was. It made no sense to him. Then he tried to breathe and received a lung full of water instead of air. Panic fueled his body and he shot to the surface: coughing, stomach churning and head pounding, but alive.

"Oh, man, that was close." Diddy just floated there for a minute, bobbing in the water, grateful for whoever it was that invented lakes. His happiness soon gave way to anger at Bowser and what he did to Diddy's best bud. "When I get my hands on that oversized turtle, I'm going to turn his shell inside out. Nobody messes with the Kongs! Nobody!"

The water around Diddy started to churn as air bubbles rose to the surface and popped all around him.

The young monkey sniffed the water and the air. "That's wasn't me, was it?"

Suddenly, Diddy felt himself rising high into the air. He bent down and found himself looking into a pair of merciless yellow eyes. Diddy Kong was sitting on the head of an extremely long, extremely hungry looking green dragon.

"Definitely not me!" Diddy sprang up and ran as fast as his little legs could go, scampering down along the dragon's back like some kind of living staircase. The beast watched him for a moment, amused at the little monkey's antics, before jerking his body and sending Diddy flying back into the water.

The dragon roared; a sound that could shatter bone and turn muscle to putty. It certainly seemed to have that effect on Diddy. He couldn't move, he was so scared. The dragon smiled a toothy grin and licked his chops. He was clearly thinking of having a simian snack. That was motivation enough for Diddy to regain control of his limbs and swim for the shore with the dragon right on his tail.

The dragon's head leered ever closer, making Diddy swim ever faster. The hungry beast opened wide, lunged and ended up with a mouthful of sand. Diddy had made it to the shore, although he didn't seem to have noticed. He was still pinwheeling his arms and kicking his feet, swimming through the sand. It wasn't until he crashed into a palm tree that he realized he wasn't in the water anymore.

"Ouch," said Diddy, rubbing his head. He looked back at the dragon. It was still in the water near the shoreline, staring coldly at the young monkey. "Ha! Not so tough now, are you? Bet you wish you could walk on land like me, huh?"

The dragon slithered out of the water and onto dry land. Raising itself almost to its full height, it towered over the sidekick.

"Of course," said Diddy. He pulled out his twin pistols and shouted, "Eat peanuts, Lizard Lips!"

Several rounds of ammunition came spinning out of the guns with deadly accuracy. The dragon opened his mouth wide and swallowed the whole lot of them.

Diddy let his arms drop dejectedly to his sides, the pistols hitting the soft ground with ominous thuds. "Probably not the best battle cry when you're using edible bullets," he mused. "I don't suppose you're allergic?"

No such luck. The dragon seemed to like his appetizer and was ready to move on to the main course. It approached the small monkey slowly, enjoying the fear that was oozing out of him.

"Wait! Wait!" begged Diddy. "You don't really want to eat me. Just think of the hairball you'll be coughing up later."

The dragon was just about to make a quick lunge when a high-pitched whistle pierced the air. The beast hesitated and rose up, cocking its head to determine the source of the sound in case it was a threat or competition for its meal. The whistle grew louder and louder as an Arwing, a cloud of smoke trailing from its engine, screamed down towards the beach, clipped the dragon on the head and crashed in an explosion of sand onto the shore. The dragon wobbled a bit and appeared a little woozy, but it hadn't been a direct hit, so it wasn't really hurt – more liked shocked.

Diddy's attention was momentarily pulled off the giant monster to the other strange thing that was on the beach. He'd never seen anything like it. It was as big as a treehouse and made of metal, not wood. It did have lots of sharp edges. Was this some kind of flying monster?

The canopy of the Arwing popped open and Fox rushed out of the ship, coughing violently on the smoke. _They say any landing you can walk away from…_ he thought, trying not to hack up a lung. The pilot hero looked at his ship; it was utterly destroyed. Flames burned on the wings and in the cockpit while smoke billowed out of every orifice.

Fox was so busy inspecting the damage to his scrap pile – I mean spaceship – that he didn't notice the long shadow looming over him. It was the low, threatening growl that finally caused him to look up.

Instead of getting scared, Fox just sighed in a defeated kind of way and pinched the bridge of his nose. "First a giant warship, now a giant snake. Nana McCloud told me there'd be days like this."

The dragon was eyeing this newcomer with increasing fury. First it attacked him and then it had the audacity not to be terrified of him? With another growl, the beast lunged and for the second time that day got a mouthful of sand as Fox nimbly leapt out of the way. Twice more the dragon attacked and twice more Fox effortlessly dodged it.

When the dragon paused for a moment, assessing this much more agile meal, Fox accessed the scouter device attached to his right ear. A green visor popped out over his right eye. "Might as well find out what you are, eh big fella?"

The computer scanned the dragon and accessed the universal database before relaying the following information:

CLASS: POKEMON

SPECIES: RAYQUAZA

THIS DRAGON SPECIES OF POKEMON LIVES IN THE OZONE LAYER OF THE ATMOSPHERE, BUT CAN ALSO BE SEEN ON THE GROUND SEARCHING FOR FOOD. IT IS RUMORED TO HAVE GREAT INFLUENCE OVER THE WEATHER. ITS MOST POWERFUL ATTACK IS THE DRAGON PULSE LASER.

As if on cue, Rayquaza opened its mouth and shot a ball of blue energy straight at Fox. Without batting an eye, the vulpine pilot activated his reflector shield and bounced the attack right back. The giant beast hadn't expected that and was pushed backwards as it collided with its own Dragon Pulse. Rayquaza just shrugged off the attack; it didn't seem to do anything except make the beast even madder.

"You're a tough one, ain't ya?" said Fox.

Seeing that its energy attack wasn't going to work, Rayquaza went back to trying to chomp down on Fox, but its speed was still no match for Fox's reflexes. Rayquaza then started to use its tail to try to stun Fox or at least slow him down. The pilot hero still managed to dodge all the attacks, but he knew this couldn't go on for much longer. He had to drive this dragon away.

"I don't suppose you know anything about how to defeat this thing?" Fox asked of his scouter.

BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS INDICATES A SKELETAL WEAKNESS ON THE UNDERSIDE OF THE LOWER JAW.

Fox looked up and saw that among the many scales that protected Rayquaza's hide, there was indeed one tiny bare spot at the base of the creature's mouth. "It's always the hardest spot to reach, isn't it?" The next time Rayquaza lunged, instead of moving to the side, Fox ducked underneath the beast's head and let loose a barrage from his laser pistol. Most of the shots were absorbed by Rayquaza's hard scales, but a few did find their mark. The great beast's entire body stiffened. It roared in pain before diving back under the surface of the lake. A few air bubbles broke the surface and then everything was calm.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," said Fox.

"That was so totally awesome!"

Fox flinched at the new voice and pointed his laser at the little monkey that was bounding his way across the beach towards him. Diddy Kong took no notice of the weapon and ran right up to Fox, bouncing on his heels and wearing a look of hero worship he usually reserved for Donkey Kong.

"When that dragon came along it was all like 'GRRR!' but you were just 'eh, no big deal' and then it tried to zap you and you zapped it back with its own zapper and it went 'RAWR RAWR RAWR' and you were jumping like 'nyah, nyah, can't catch me' and then you went BANG BANG and the dragon ran away like 'no, please, don't hurt me' it was the coolest thing ever!"

"Uh…thank you." The little monkey had been speaking in such a rush that Fox only picked up every third word or so and the whole time he had been talking, the monkey had moved ever closer to Fox. The pilot hero had to back away a bit just to keep some space between them. The little guy may have eaten too much sugar, but he didn't seem to be any sort of threat, so Fox holstered his laser and introduced himself. "Fox McCloud. Captain of the Great Fox and leader of the Star Fox Corneria defense team.

Diddy confidently took Fox's outstretched hand in a firm handshake. "Diddy Kong. Supreme Second Banana and Vice President of the Candy Kong fan club."

"Charmed." Fox scanned the sky. As he expected, the warship was nowhere in sight. He had to get back into the air and find it again. A crackling sound drew Fox's attention behind him where sparks were shooting out of the cockpit of his damaged Arwing.

"I'm obviously not going anywhere in this," muttered Fox, walking up to the wreck. "Wings bent. Boosters shot. Shielding cracked. And that grappling hook sliced my engine apart. And on the day the warranty ran out too. Well, hopefully the communicator still works." Fox carefully reached for the ship's control panel, but quickly yanked his arm back when the whole thing blew apart in a shower of metal shards.

"So much for that hope," said Fox. He tapped the electronic device on his ear. "My scouter's communicator is too weak to reach past the atmosphere." Fox looked down thoughtfully to see Diddy still looking up at him wide-eyed. "I don't suppose you have a quadratic crystal prism array I could borrow to boost my transmission signal, do you?"

In his most excited voice, Diddy squealed, "I have no idea what you just said."

"I didn't think so," Fox said gloomily. "Well, how about a radio I could use?"

He received only a blank stare from Diddy.

"Phone? Telegraph? Two cans attached with a string?"

More blank stares.

Fox touched his fingers to his forehead in thought before continuing. "Okay, let's try this a different way. What do you guys do around here when you want to talk to someone far away?"

"We yell really loudly."

"I don't think I have the lung capacity for that," Fox deadpanned. "Can you at least tell me where I am?"

"This is the Congo Bongo Jungle," Diddy said.

"Uh huh." That didn't really help Fox. He had been hoping for a planet name or quadrant number, but he supposed that Diddy wasn't going to be able to give him that. Hopefully someone else in the area could, but he doubted it. "You live around here?" Fox asked distractedly as he took in the dense foliage around him.

"Not really," admitted Diddy. "I just fell into the lake after DK and I stopped a bunch of turtles with a floating wagon from stealing our bananas."

"Hmmm. Wait, what?" Fox was sure he hadn't heard that correctly, but he didn't get the chance to ask Diddy to repeat it. The young monkey suddenly started hopping wildly about having remembered why he had been flung into the lake in the first place.

"Oh my gosh, DK! I gotta help DK! He's in trouble and I gotta save him and…"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Fox grabbed hold of the panicky Diddy and forced him to stand still. "Who is DK?"

"Donkey Kong, my best bud," Diddy said, panting heavily. "He was captured by this big, mean, nasty-looking turtle with a huge gun. I gotta find him."

Diddy shot off down the shore, but stopped short when Fox grabbed the end of his tail. "Hold up there, little fella. You don't want to be going around looking for gun toting turtles."

"But, DK…"

"You'll get hurt if you go alone," insisted Fox.

"Well, then…" Diddy's eyes darted back and forth as thoughts whipped through his brain at lightning speed. Then he smiled and said, "Why don't you come with me?"

A part of Fox had been expecting this question. "I'm sorry, really I am, but I have my own problems to deal with." He felt a pang of guilt at disappointing the little guy, but his mission had to take precedence. "I'm looking for a spaceship that attacked my home and almost destroyed it."

"Spaceship?" asked Diddy.

Fox actually had to think for a minute as to how he could explain this to Diddy without getting too technical. He decided to keep it simple. "It's a ship that flies through the air instead of on water."

"Skyships!" shouted the young monkey excitedly. "Oh, oh, I've heard of those."

"You have?" asked Fox, not quite believing it.

"Yeah! The village elders tell stories of ships that can sail through the air from distant lands. A lot of the grownups don't believe them, but I always thought it would be so cool to see one. Hey…" Diddy's eyes widened as if he just realized something. "Are you from one of those distant lands?"

Rather than go into detail, Fox simply nodded.

"And is that your skyship?" Diddy pointed to the wrecked remains of the Arwing.

"It was," Fox said sadly. "The war-, uh, skyship I'm looking for is much bigger and less on fire. I was chasing it when I got shot down. My teammates are coming to help me destroy it, but I fear they won't get here in time to prevent the ship from doing more damage."

"Damage?" squeaked Diddy fearfully. "Do you think my village is in danger?"

"Possibly." Fox had no idea where Diddy's village was located, but the harsh fact was that no place was safe with that warship on the loose. "That's why I have to go. Good luck with your friend."

"Wait!" Diddy grabbed Fox's arm as the pilot turned to leave. "We can help you find the skyship. If you come with me to save Donkey Kong, I'm sure he'll want to return the favor."

"Thanks for the offer," said Fox kindly, "but this mission will be dangerous. Possibly even deadly. I don't want to put anyone else at risk. So, until my team gets here, I think it best if I work alone." With a farewell salute, Fox left Diddy standing on the sandy shore.

"Let's see," Fox muttered to himself. "If I triangulate my current position based on the angle of my crash descent, I should be able to estimate…"

Fox was cut off when he felt a tug on the collar of his jacket so strong it knocked him off his feet. He looked over his shoulder and saw Diddy pulling him into the jungle and speaking in his rapid fire manner, "Okay great we're a team you help me we'll help you now let's go go go!"

After a few minutes of futility struggling to get out of Diddy's grip, Fox shrugged and said, "Then again, a guy can't have too many friends, now can he?"

As Diddy Kong and Fox disappeared into the dense vegetation, Rayquaza slowly and silently reappeared from the lake. Revenge. That's what it wanted for the humiliating defeat it suffered at the hands of that fox creature. It didn't even care about eating him anymore, Rayquaza just wanted to destroy that fox. No one got away with attacking a legendary Pokémon.

Rayquaza charged up another Dragon Pulse, aiming for the edge of the jungle that the fox and the monkey had entered. Before it could get off a shot, the great beast felt something hard and sharp collide with the right side of its head. The Dragon Pulse sputtered out. Rayquaza examined the beach and then the sky, a low, angry growl, coming from its throat, but it saw nothing that could have attacked it. It decided to try once more, but this time it had barely built up any energy before it felt three more hits in quick succession. The beast looked around again, but whatever had hit it was already out of sight.

This was too much, even for Rayquaza. This was the last time it tried to find a meal on the ground. With an explosion of water, the legendary dragon rose into the air and disappeared in the clouds while a pair of green eyes watched its accent from the safety of the jungle.

"Some heroes," the hidden figure muttered to himself. "They were almost blasted to bits by an overgrown salamander. What chance do they have against Subspace?" He supposed that, in fairness, the fox guy did have a few good moves at least. Nice speed too. "Reminds me of another fox I knew," he said sadly.

He didn't know if he could trust these two or how much help they'd really be. They could just as easily get in his way. He always worked better alone anyway. "I hope these guys can take care of themselves from here on out. I've got other places to be." A gust of wind, the blink of an eye and the figure was gone.

* * *

_There it is. Hope you liked it. I think it will be pretty easy for most of you to guess who the mysterious figure is, but don't spoil it for anyone who might not know. I'm trying for at least one chapter a month, so look for the next one after the holidays. Reviews always welcome. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Hello_ _everyone. Thanks to all those who've read and reviewed my story so far. I'm sorry this update took a bit longer than planned. I think I've kind of made up for it though by putting up my longest chapter yet. Fair warning: my story's going to be taking a slightly darker turn for the next couple of chapters since I'll be writing about places where Subspace and the Primids have already been. Those of you who've played the game should know the places I'm talking about. Don't worry, there's no major character deaths. That's not really my thing and I wouldn't dare to change the original story that much._

_And now, Chapter 5. Enjoy. I do not own Smash Bros., the game, the characters, blah, blah, blah, yackity smackity._

* * *

**Chapter 5 – I See You Like To Play Smash Bros.**

'Ruined' didn't even begin to describe it.

Maybe 'devastated' or 'ravaged' was more accurate. Perhaps even 'utterly and completely obliterated'.

Of course, no words would ever be powerful enough to perfectly convey the feelings of hopelessness and longing a young boy was feeling right now as he slowly walked through the remains of what had once been his home town. The normally sunny sky was dark with clouds. Piles of wood and bricks now rested where comfortable homes had stood. Street lights lay bent and sparking across broken streets. Small fires still burned on blackened lawns. But the scariest, most heart-wrenching thing about this scene was the silence.

No people. No pets. No moving cars. No nothing. The boy supposed that, on the plus side, that meant no more screams. No more shooting. No more wails of anguish and pain. It had been a nightmare to listen to. The boy had wanted to tear his own ears off, just to get it to stop. But he'd take that over the oppressive stillness that now threatened to suffocate him.

The only sounds to be heard now were a shrill whistling of the wind as it blew threw his blond hair. His red and yellow striped shirt softly ruffled against his shorts and a pair of matching sneakers crunched specks of gravel underneath them. A pair of black oval eyes fought to hold back tears.

**LUCAS**

He couldn't stay here. Lucas knew that and he didn't want to anyway, but some part of him was finding it hard to go. He stood there waiting – knowing that it was hopeless, but waiting just the same – for his parents to come out from behind one of the half-fallen walls or flipped over cars and prove to him that they had survived the attack too.

Last night, his parents had gone outside, like everyone else, to see that strange spaceship that had appeared in the sky. They had made Lucas stay in the house for his own safety. He hadn't needed much prodding. After securing himself under the blankets of his bed, Lucas peaked out the window as a strange purple snow fell on the town. Once the snowflakes hit the ground, they had started to move all on their own and formed into short green and black figures with big hands and red eyes.

They were surely the weirdest snowmen Lucas had ever seen.

That's when the screaming had started. The shadow snow creatures began attacking everyone and everything in sight. Some threw oversized boomerangs that ripped easily through solid stone. Some had rifles that fired energy shots. Others breathed fire or simply lashed out with their fists. Whichever way they attacked, the result was the same. Nothing could stand against them. The town's small police force was taken out within just a few minutes and it wasn't long after that the creatures were invading the houses, dragging people outside or simply attacking them in their homes.

The sight sickened Lucas so much he thought he might puke, but he couldn't look away from it until one of the creatures looked up and stared straight at him with those soulless red eyes. Lucas immediately ducked down under the covers, but it was too late. They knew he was there. He heard the front door being knocked down and his imagination filled the downstairs of the house with hundreds, maybe thousands of those creatures looking for him.

Ominous footsteps were getting closer. Lucas could hear them on the stairs. With a jolt of horror, he realized he had not shut his bedroom door, depriving him of some dreamt up impenetrable barrier. Those creatures would walk right in and drag him away or just kill him outright. All the mind bending fear built up inside Lucas until it threatened to explode, which it did, in an eruption of blue lightning that tore through all the shadow creatures in the house, reducing them to purple ash.

His state of fear was so great that Lucas didn't even realize at first that he had used his PSI powers. It was longer still before he noticed that there were no hands tearing the blankets off him and beating the daylights out of him. Cautiously, Lucas peaked out from his blankets to find his room was empty. Plus, it had gotten very quiet outside. Rushing downstairs and out of the house, Lucas was met with the apocalyptic landscape that now encompassed his neighborhood.

He stood there another couple of minutes, looking around forlornly, the sight making him sick to his stomach. Finally he concluded that no one was going to be joining him. He was alone.

"Well," he said softly to himself, "Not completely alone." There was at least one other person who had survived the attack, but Lucas didn't expect to see him. He was out hunting down the creatures that did this. "That's what I should be doing." The thought of encountering those creatures again terrified Lucas, but he'd go nuts if he just stayed there.

With one last look and a silent goodbye, the young lad walked away from the ruins of his childhood home.

* * *

Leaves rustled noisily and birds flew out of trees, squawking angrily as Fox pushed aside branches and bushes as he attempted to force his way through the jungle. He'd been following Diddy Kong for over three hours as they tried in vain to pick up the trail of his missing friend, Donkey Kong. As yet another branch snapped back and smacked Fox in the face, he thought that, if this Donkey Kong was as great as Diddy was constantly saying, _he'd_ be able to escape and find _them_.

Suddenly the vegetation gave way and Fox stumbled into a small clearing. "Thank goodness," he huffed as he plucked the prickers and thorns from his clothing. He glanced over at Diddy standing in the center of the clearing, twisting his head this way and that. The vulpine pilot noticed, with no small amount of agitation, that Diddy didn't have a single scar or smudge from the rough terrain they'd just gone through. Fox felt a twinge of jealousy at the young monkey's ability to effortlessly pass through the jungle.

"Diddy, are you sure you know where we are?" asked Fox irritably.

"Huh?" Diddy looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, of course I know. You see that tree over there." He pointed to a rather thick tree along the right edge of the clearing.

Fox confirmed that, yes, he did indeed see it.

"Well, that tree is the one with the root that you tripped over earlier."

Fox scowled at the tree. His ankle was still sore from that. Then the true meaning of Diddy's words hit him and his face went slack. "I tripped over earlier? You mean we've passed by this place once before."

"Twice before." Fox stared as Diddy just shrugged his shoulders. "This is the third time."

"You just said you knew where we were going!"

"No, you asked if I knew where we _were_. I have no idea where we're _going_."

"Great, just great!" shouted Fox angrily, scaring off even more of the wildlife. "We've been going around in circles: stuck in a jungle with a monkey that has no sense of direction." In a much quieter voice, he said, "I knew I should have done this by myself."

Diddy was getting angry himself now. "Hey, if you were alone, you'd have gotten just as lost. Or worse, eaten. That dragon you fought isn't the only predator around here. I've been steering us clear of them."

"A fat lot of good it does us if we can't make any headway," Fox retorted. "I've got more important things to do than to trounce around a jungle looking for monkeys."

"Well, maybe you should get back into your skyship and fly out of here. Oh, that's right, you can't 'cause you broke it!"

"I was shot down," said Fox defensively.

"What kind of hero gets shot down like that anyway?" asked Diddy.

"That happens when you go up against villains. I'll have you know I've been shot down many, many times in my career."

Diddy looked at Fox with a raised eyebrow.

"I…that…That didn't come out right," stammered Fox. "But you know what I mean."

"Well, if you're not going to help me find DK then I'll rescue him by myself," stated Diddy.

"Fine, go do that," said Fox.

"Fine, I will."

"Fine."

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

The two glared at each other for another second before simultaneously turning their backs on each other and setting out again in opposite directions. Diddy stopped at the edge of the clearing, looked over at Fox one last time and in a soft, sad voice said, "Some hero you turned out to be," before vanishing into the jungle.

* * *

The dark cloud cover persisted overhead no matter where Lucas went or how fast he ran. It seemed that nature was determined that he never see the sun again. After leaving what was left of his home, the young lad had decided to follow the main road out of the Town of Onett, not really having any other idea where to go. As he progressed, Lucas encountered more scenes of destruction and other abandoned neighborhoods. The road led him through the Onett Marketplace where produce from grocery stands had spilled out onto the streets and the sidewalks were spotted with large, dark puddles of what Lucas could only hope was the juice from squashed tomatoes.

Eventually, his path brought him to the zoo just outside the city limits. This had always been a favorite vacation spot for Lucas and his parents. The animals were always interesting to watch and there was a small park in the center with a playground and even some carnival rides. The entrance to the zoo itself was a pair of intricate wrought iron gates set within a very tall wall of pristine white stone. Now the entranceway was just as ruined as everything else in town. The flowing designs welded into the metal of the gates were now a twisted mess and many large holes pockmarked the wall, as if it had been chewed through by giant mice. Instead of inviting people in, the entranceway now warned everyone to stay away.

Lucas was of a mind to do just that. He really did not want to see this place in its current state. He was just starting to go around the zoo when he hesitated and turned back towards the entrance.

Maybe it was just nerves or his PSI powers acting up again, but Lucas could swear that he sensed – not saw, not heard, but sensed – that someone or some_thing_ was in the zoo. He tried to dismiss the feeling. It was obvious that no one was around and his psychic abilities had never worked for him like that before. Still, no matter how he reasoned with himself, he could not shake that feeling.

He stood just outside the zoo entrance, undecided. On the one hand, that someone who was in the zoo could need his help. On the other hand, it could be those shadow creatures again and it would be best to avoid running into those. But that was what he was looking for, right? To stop them from harming anyone else? He was afraid of those creatures, though. Deathly afraid. He didn't want to meet the same fate as his parents. But he had to avenge his parents, didn't he?

While his mind waged war with itself, Lucas' legs made the decision for him and to his surprise, he found himself walking into the zoo.

* * *

Diddy flew through the treetops, swinging from vine to vine, at a much faster pace than he had managed on the ground with Fox. It was for that reason that Diddy was glad they had ended their short-lived partnership. At least at first. As the day wore on, though, the young monkey started to wonder exactly how he was going to rescue DK all by himself. That turtle with the gun was huge and there might even be more of those Troopas around.

That was all moot, however, since Diddy still had no idea where DK had been taken or where to start looking.

Then, after a little more time just aimlessly wandering around the jungle, Diddy had gotten lucky. There on the branch below were two of the brown, mushroom shaped creatures, plodding along on their stubby little feet. Diddy stayed as high in the trees as he could while still being able to see the goombas and shadowed them as they followed the path – really sloooowly. It took all of Diddy's willpower not to shout to them to hurry up. After what seemed like forever, the goombas led Diddy to another clearing with thick bushes lining the entire circumference except for the right side edge which fell off to a cliff.

By now, the young monkey's patience was wearing thin. He was going to confront those creatures and force them to tell him where their boss had taken his big buddy. The goombas entered the bush and Diddy swung out into the clearing to surprise them when they came out. But they never emerged. The monkey sidekick waited a full minute, poised in a pouncing position, before going over to search the bushes. The goombas weren't there.

_What happened to them?_ wondered Diddy. _Did they fall off the cliff?_

The sound of pounding footsteps tore the little monkey from his thoughts. He turned and saw the object of his search in front of him: Bowser. The leader of the Koopa Troop looked just as mean and cruel as Diddy remembered him, except that he now had a prominent purple glow around him and his scaly skin seemed darker than it had before.

None of that mattered to Diddy. The only thing he cared about was getting this overgrown tortoise to tell him where Donkey Kong was.

"Well, well, look who's back," Diddy said bravely. "I've been looking everywhere for you. You've got a friend of mine and I want him back. Where's DK?"

Bowser said nothing. He only stared evilly at Diddy.

"Don't feel like talking, eh?" taunted Diddy as he smacked his fists together. "I guess I'll just have to pound the answer out of you. HIYA!"

Just like at their first meeting, Diddy struck a kung fu pose, whipping his hands around hopping from one foot to the next. Bowser watched impassively at the bravado. Then Diddy began leaping about landing first in front of Bowser, then beside him, in back of him and in front again. The Koopa King could barely follow the sidekick's swift movements. When he turned to look at Diddy, the monkey would already be somewhere else.

The obvious speed difference between the two combatants heartened Diddy and boosted his confidence. _He can barely see me and he doesn't have his gun either. I am so taking him down._

With an extra burst of speed, Diddy leapt right at Bowser, intending to smash him full on the face.

With surprising quickness, Bowser snatched Diddy out of the air with one hand and held him tight.

The young monkey was shocked. He struggled to in vain to get loose. "Beginner's luck," he muttered.

Bowser drew back his other hand and nailed Diddy with a powerful uppercut that sent the monkey flying backwards.

Diddy lay on the ground for several seconds before he could even perform the simple action of opening his eyes. When he did, he immediately wished he hadn't. The sunlight stabbed at his eyes like daggers and it felt like an explosion had gone off in his head. He managed to get to his feet, but was very wobbly and had to throw his arms out to steady himself.

"So, you ready to give up," Diddy said in a slurred speech. "I'm through going easy on you."

The Koopa King roared and, with footsteps that shook the ground, charged at Diddy Kong. The young sidekick's head was still ringing. He saw not one but three Bowser's coming towards him. No way could he dodge in time.

From directly behind Diddy, a barrage of laser fire shot out of the jungle, stunning Bowser and stopping his assault. Diddy looked back and saw Fox emerge into the clearing, blaster in hand.

"Oh, man," moaned Diddy. "I must have gotten hit harder than I thought. I'm hallu-see-nothing."

"It's hallucinating," said Fox, not unkindly. "And no, you're not." Bowser had recovered from the laser blasts and stood glaring at Fox. The pilot hero let loose another volley, but without the element of surprise, it didn't have much effect. "I take it this is the giant turtle you've been looking for?"

Diddy shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, that's him. Except for the glowing part; that's new."

Bowser roared in defiance and pawed the ground like a bull. Instead of waiting for an attack, Fox charged the Koopa King, fist raised. Like with Diddy, the villainous turtle was ready and caught the punch in one hand. When Fox swung his other fist, Bowser caught that one as well. The two fighters grappled with each other, a seemingly equal match, but Fox knew that wouldn't last long. It would be matter of seconds before Bowser's superior strength overcame his adrenaline-powered rush.

"Diddy! A little help, please!"

The young monkey ran full out on his hands and feet. He leapt into the air and kicked Bowser in the face with all his might. The villain staggered back, releasing Fox's left hand, but managing to keep his grip on the right one. That gave Fox enough maneuvering room to land a series of rapid fire kicks to Bowser's stomach, forcing the tyrant turtle to let go completely.

Bowser held his stomach with one arm and rubbed his jaw with the other, but didn't seem to have taken much damage from those attacks.

"What do we do now?" Diddy was starting to feel just the teensiest bit worried.

"He's too strong for ordinary attacks," Fox mused, more to himself than to Diddy. "What we need is one powerful attack so he doesn't have time to recover."

"Well, okay, how are we gonna come up with that?" Diddy demanded.

Fox glared ahead at Bowser who was getting ready to charge again. The pilot hero nodded as if he'd just decided something. "Stand back." His voice was calm, but there was a current of power underneath that surprised Diddy. The young monkey took a few steps back with a curious look at his teammate.

At the same time, Bowser roared and charged full speed while Fox let out his own howl and the area immediately around him instantly burst into flames.

Diddy jumped at the sudden conflagration and retreated several more feet away from Fox. The stench of burnt hair filled his nose and he looked down to see the fur on his arms was slightly charred.

Bowser gave no notice to the flames now raging around his opponent and just kept coming, his heavy footsteps shaking the jungle floor. Just before Bowser was on top of him, Fox charged at an incredible speed – a living fireball. The two fighters met in a pillar of flame. From one side emerged Fox, looking perfectly fine and from the other side bounced a Trophified Bowser.

"There. All taken care of," said Fox as if he'd done nothing more noteworthy than doing the laundry.

"Dude." Diddy was slowly walking towards Fox, an expression of awe on his face. "That…was the most amazing thing…I have ever seen."

"What, that?" said Fox, jerking his thumb at the defeated Bowser. "Just a little something I picked up. No big deal."

"No big deal?" Diddy was incredulous. "You were on fire and you blew up that turtle and…and…" The young monkey's overflowing energy finally seemed to fail him and he looked up at Fox like a scared little kid. "…and you came back."

Fox looked down sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't get far before I realized you were right. I wasn't being very much of a hero. I'm not the type of guy to ignore someone in trouble. Besides, I'll need all the help I can get when we finally find that warship, right, my friend?"

"Yeah!" Diddy's exuberance was back in full force. "We'll find DK and take down that ship. No problem."

"And I think our friend over there…" Fox pointed to Bowser. "…can tell us exactly where Donkey Kong is."

"Oooh, an interrogation. Okay, you be the good cop and I'll be the bad cop." Putting on his best scowl, Diddy sauntered over to the Bowser trophy. He glared right into the tyrant's face. "Not so tough now, are ya, Big Guy? Huh? Huh?" The monkey sidekick slapped Bowser on the shoulder and all at once, the trophy dissolved into a mass of purplish-black specs.

With a yelp, Diddy zoomed away from the trophy and hid behind Fox. "I didn't do it."

Fox was just as shocked as he watched the shadowy specs spill out over the ground before fading from existence. "What in the world was that?"

"Maybe it was something he ate?"

"No, I don't…" Fox's ears twitched. There was a low whine coming from the jungle. He looked to the side as a black arrow-shaped laser streaked towards the pair of heroes.

"MOVE!"

Both Fox and Diddy dived out of the way and the laser zoomed past harmlessly.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" demanded Fox.

A rustling of jungle foliage was his answer. From behind the green curtain stepped Bowser, his oversized Dark Cannon in hand.

"Didn't we just beat him up?" a confused Diddy asked.

"Not quite," said the tyrant Koopa king with a mocking smile. "I am a little surprised you managed to beat the duplicate, but then, he was just a shadow of the real thing." Bowser laughed at his own joke. Then, as if noticing Diddy for the first time, said, "Well, if it isn't Donkey Kong Jr. I see you've got a replacement bodyguard." Bowser nodded towards Fox. "That was sure fast."

At the sound of his best friend's name, Diddy became enraged. "Where is DK, you ugly sack of slime?"

"Don't worry," Bowser growled menacingly. He trained his cannon on the advancing little monkey. "You'll be joining him soon."

Bowser fired and Diddy would have been another trophy for his mantle if Fox hadn't grabbed Diddy by the collar and yanked him out of the way.

"Let me go! Let me go!" screamed the young monkey, struggling to get out of Fox's grip. "We can take him."

Bowser seemed to think that over. "Two against one? That's not fair at all." He snapped his claws together and from out of the jungle poured Goombas and Troopas, dozens of them, filling up the clearing and forcing the two heroes to the cliff edge.

"There, that's better", said Bowser with a wide grin.

Fox was getting worried as he scanned the hordes of henchmen surrounding him. They didn't look too tough, but their numbers were multiplying by the second. Then there was this Bowser character. Diddy was right; they could defeat the giant turtle again. Of that, Fox was sure. But not while he had that cannon. No, this was quickly turning into a fight they could not win and since escape through the jungle was no longer an option, that left only one course of action.

"Get them!" roared Bowser.

Before the first Goomba could put even a single foot forward, Fox – with a very surprised Diddy in tow – ran to the edge of the cliff and jumped off. The entire group of Troopas just stood there in shock for a moment before Bowser pushed his way forward and looked out over the cliff. He saw rock ledges jutting out from the mountain wall, vines creeping up the rock face and a river that was no more than a thin blue line far below him. What he did not see was any sign of the two heroes.

"Ha ha ha! Looks like our heroes turned out to be chickens. Too bad chickens can't fly. Ha ha ha!" The Troopas behind him all laughed along with Bowser at this incredibly lame joke. In fact, they kept laughing long after Bowser had stopped. "All right, all right! It wasn't that funny."

* * *

As Lucas had expected, the zoo was in just as bad a shape as the rest of Onett. The white stone buildings and pathways were smeared with dirt and grime, but at least most of them were still intact. Trash lay scattered everywhere. Directional signs hung limp, swinging from bent nails on their signposts. The grass in the park area was brown and shriveled, if not burnt outright, and the trees were bare of any leaves. It looked more like late autumn than early summer. And, just to make it as creepy as it could possibly be, a thick veil of fog hung low over the entire place, making it impossible to see clearly for more than ten feet.

The suffocating silence persisted even here. Every single animal habitat was empty and the cages all had sections where the thick steel bars had been pulled apart like string cheese, leaving an opening just big enough for someone Lucas' size to get through. Lucas had little doubt as to what had done that.

"Hello! Is anyone there?"

A pointless action and Lucas knew it. He'd been calling out like that ever since leaving his house in the slim hope that someone else – anyone else – had survived the attack of those shadow creatures. Mostly though, he just shouted in order to hear something, to remind himself that at least one person was still alive in the world. However, it wasn't long before even his own voice failed to comfort him.

"This is hopeless," the young lad muttered to himself. He didn't know why he was still there. He'd been wandering around the zoo for almost an hour now and hadn't found whatever it was that he had sensed with his PSI powers. He wasn't even sure if he had sensed anything anymore. And yet, he made no move to exit the zoo.

"Maybe I'm hoping someone will find me."

Just then, Lucas heard a noise. It was soft and muted because of the fog, but it was so unexpected after so much silence that Lucas jumped ten feet into the air as if it had been a gun shot. Once he got a hold of himself, Lucas concentrated on the sound, trying to find out what it was. A fast, steady click-clack. Footsteps. He quickly looked down. Nope, his feet were not moving. That meant that someone else _was_ here and coming towards him.

Lucas' first reaction was pure joy mixed with a healthy dose of relief. Someone else was out there looking for survivors. A few seconds later, that relief turned into fear and dread. What if it was more of those shadow things coming to get him? What if they had come back in case they missed anyone? Standing alone in a fog covered abandoned zoo will give you thoughts like that.

The footsteps were getting closer, but the echo made it impossible to tell where they were coming from. Then, off to Lucas' left side, he saw a dark shape emerging from the fog between two buildings. If the boy had his wits about him, he would probably have noticed that there was only one figure and it was too tall to be a Primid. But, in his fear induced haze, Lucas saw only a vicious enemy, one of perhaps hundreds sent to kill him. He started to back away, not daring to look away. The figure saw this and increased its speed. Now Lucas was utterly terrified, but he couldn't make himself move any faster. Finally, the figure was upon him. It grabbed Lucas' shoulders roughly, got right in his face and said…

"Have you seen Cheryl?"

"Huh?"

Lucas looked up to see a man in his early 30's. He was wearing a blue shirt with a brown leather jacket and a pair of very dark pants. A pair of glasses with rectangular lenses shielded a pair of blue, panicky eyes. His brown hair was sticking up in disarray as if he'd run his hands through it countless times. When he spoke, there was a definite tone of worry and desperation in his voice.

"Have you seen my daughter, Cheryl? My name is Harry Mason. We were in a car accident on our way to Silent Hill and when I woke up she was gone. I have no idea where…"

"Whoa wait, Dude, wait," said Lucas in a calming tone. "You're in the wrong game. This is Onett."

Harry gave Lucas a blank look and then stood up straight, his checks coloring with embarrassment. "Oh. Oh, dear. Well, this is awkward. I just thought with the abandoned town and the fog and everything that…"

"No, no this isn't horror, it's actually an action/adventure story, but I can see where you could make that mistake."

"I must have made a wrong turn running from those nightmare creatures."

"Happens to me all the time."

"I'm really sorry," gushed Harry. "I didn't mean to steal your spotlight."

"Oh, that's alright," Lucas assured him.

"Well, I should be going. Oh, say, if you do happen to see a little girl…"

"I'll keep my eyes open," Lucas promised as Harry disappeared back into the mist. Shaking his head in amusement, Lucas continued on his way only to hear a rustling noise behind him. Thinking it was Harry again, he turned around and said, "I already told you, I don't…"

Lucas' tongue caught in his throat when he saw the purple and black Shadow Bugs creeping around the ground like a horde of cockroaches. Before he could even think of running away, the Bugs swarmed around him and transformed into a group of eight Primids. The dark creatures stared at Lucas with soulless red eyes and reached for him with their punching-glove like hands.

Fear and terror welled up inside Lucas as he flashbacked to last night's attack, the sights and sounds so vivid in his mind, as if he were watching it for the first time right now. The Primids edged ever closer, but Lucas was frozen where he stood. He couldn't think. He could barely breathe. He knew he had to do something or else he'd end up just like everyone else in town, but for the life of him he had no idea what to do.

Then one of the Primid's reached out and just barely touched him on the shoulder. That was the catalyst; it was like a spark igniting inside Lucas. All at once, his fear burst forth and with a scream or terror, a ring of fire erupted around Lucas, driving the Primids away from him. The fire wasn't as strong as the energy that the young psychic had unleashed last night, so the shadow creatures were not destroyed. But they were forced to retreat a goodly distance away from the flames, creating an opening in their circle for Lucas to dash through.

The boy ran without any clear sense of where he was going, just as long as he left those creatures far behind. He chanced a quick look over his shoulder. There were no Primids in sight, but Lucas didn't slow down until his lungs felt like they would burst. Stumbling to a stop, he collapsed against a statue, talking big gulps of air.

Only when his heart stopped pounding in his ears did the boy realize he was in the park portion of the zoo. It was as dilapidated as everywhere else with overturned picnic tables and broken playground equipment, but Lucas couldn't bring himself to care. He never thought he would be so glad to be alone. He must have lost the shadow creatures and could afford to rest a minute. Leaning back, Lucas closed his eyes and rested his head against the statue's smooth stone surface.

Lucas' eyes flew back open. Statue? He didn't remember a statue ever being in this park. He glanced up; it was a statue of a portly boy about his age with a wide oval mouth, long bangs covering its eyes and a crown on its head. Who was this guy to get a statue made for him?

Tremors shook the ground and Lucas felt a vibration on his back as he heard the squeal of stone upon stone. Scrambling to stand up, Lucas was shocked to see that the statue was moving. The stone giant bent and shook its arms and legs, as if testing them out, and then glared down at Lucas before reaching out and trying to squash the boy with one of its giant hands.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

Quickly dodging to the side, Lucas avoided the hand and started running again. The rhythmic pounding behind him told him the statue was hot on his trail. He looked back and saw that not only was the statue chasing him, but it was actually gaining. The thing moved pretty fast for a ton of rock.

Outrunning it was out of the question. Lucas had to hide. He darted down an alleyway between a couple of two-story buildings. There were two doors directly across from each other on the ground floor and two more across from each other on balconies on the second floor.

Lucas threw open the left ground floor door and leapt inside, slamming the door shut behind him. Just one second later, the statue appeared in the alley and opened the door Lucas had entered, but found no one inside. At the same time, the bottom right door opened and Lucas' head peaked out. He saw the statue, gasped, and slammed the door closed.

After a moment's hesitation, the statue reached down and opened the bottom right door only to have Lucas now appear from the top right door. When the statue looked up, Lucas disappeared back inside again. This continued on with the statue trying to catch Lucas who would appear in a different door each time. Bottom left. Top right. Top left. Bottom left. Bottom right. Top left.

Finally, frustrated beyond belief, the statue punched the sides of both buildings, ripping way the doors and walls so there would be no place to hide. However, all that was revealed were empty offices and storage rooms filled with souvenir coffee mugs. Lucas was nowhere to be seen.

A metallic clanging sound caused the statue to look down and see a manhole cover in the street getting pushed up and Lucas' head popping out of the sewer. The boy looked behind him, gave another scream of fight and climbed out of the sewer and ran off with the statue once again in pursuit.

After some more twisting and turning between buildings, Lucas managed to get far enough ahead of the statue to lose it. He could hear it stomping around the zoo looking for him as he hid behind the former tiger enclosure. There he stayed until the pounding footsteps faded away. Only then did Lucas dare look around the corner. The coast was clear. This was his chance to make a break for it. Stepping out as carefully and quietly as he could, Lucas took a quick check around to make sure no enemies were in sight before breaking out into a run. Apparently, he didn't check well enough because he ran into the group of Primids he escaped from earlier. And now they were all sporting laser rifles.

A barrage of laser fire assaulted Lucas as he barely managed to duck for cover behind a tall wooden wall that had been constructed for no obvious reason. The Primids didn't let up. The wall creaked and shifted with every hit it took. You didn't have to be psychic to know it wasn't going to last long.

But that was fine with Lucas. He'd been running all day. It was time to turn the tables and fight. "If I can control my PSI powers for just a couple of seconds," he muttered to himself, "I can barbeque those shadows just like I did before."

Lucas took a few steps back from the wall, being careful to still keep it between him and the lasers. He concentrated until he could see the Primids clearly in his mind, thrust out his hands and furiously shouted out, "PK Fire!"

The wooden wall shielding Lucas went up in a fiery blaze and turned to ashes in a manner of seconds.

Lucas, with his hands still extended out, blinked in surprise. "Well, that didn't go at all as planned. Back to running." Which he did, with the Primids close behind him firing away.

Finally, as a last and desperate – very, very desperate – attempt to escape, Lucas dived into a twisted dome of monkey bars. As he sat on the ground, coiled in the fetal position, the statue, flanked by the Primids, stomped over to the bars and grabbed the top of the dome to rip it off.

"PK Thunder!"

An orb of crackling blue and white energy flew over the monkey bars and struck the statue square in the forehead. The force of the attack pushed the lumbering monument back several steps until it teetered wildly and fell backwards onto the squad of Primids, reducing them to Shadow Bug paste.

The impact of the falling statue against the ground caused the entire area to shake and it was only when everything was calm again that Lucas dared to open his eyes. He saw the statue, flat on its back and he saw the last of the Primid residue dissolve out of existence. And walking around the outside of the dome of monkey bars he saw a boy about his age wearing shorts, red shoes and a blue and yellow striped shirt. Black hair poked out from under a red cap. A backpack hung off the boy's shoulders.

**NESS**

Oval, black eyes regarded Lucas with a mixture of concern and amusement. "Lucas, I have to tell you, that is quite possibly the worst hiding place ever."

Lucas stood up and with a sheepish smile replied, "I know. But's it all I had."

Shaking his head, Ness helped his friend out of the monkey bars. "Lucas, what are you doing here?" he asked, a little sternly. "I thought I told you to stay in your house until I got back."

Lucas looked down and rubbed his foot across the ground. "Yeah, well I…"

A low rumbling downed out whatever Lucas was going to say. Both boys saw the statue get back up heavily to its feet.

"Hold that thought," said Ness as he readied himself for another attack.

"Surrender, fools!" boomed a voice seemingly out of nowhere.

Ness turned to Lucas with a raised eyebrow. "Did you hear that?"

Lucas nodded and pointed to the statue. "I-I think it was him."

"Of course, it was me!" The statue began to vibrate. Starting from the chest, thick cracks ran around its torso, down its limbs and up over its head. The statue burst apart in a cloud of debris and stone dust. In its place was a monstrous spider-looking robot with eight mechanical legs attached to some sort of casket that held a glass container. Inside that container was a boy that had the same face and the same potbelly and the statue had.

"Ness, at last, we meet again," the boy said with a sneer.

"Porky," Ness spat. The two boys had met on one of Ness' previous adventures when the young hero had stopped the potbellied tyrant from destroying the world and remaking it in his image.

Porky's voice was dripping with arrogance and seemed much too mature for someone so young looking. "It's time for me to extract my vengeance upon you for ruining my future and locking me inside this indestructible capsule."

Ness decided not to mention that Porky had actually locked himself inside that capsule. He had never been the most mentally stable of people. The psychic hero immediately moved in front of Lucas, shielding him. "I knew you were the one behind all this."

"Really, how'd you know it was me?" Porky seemed genuinely confused.

"Dude, your statue looked just like you," said Ness in an exasperated voice.

It took Porky a moment to recover from this revelation. "Yes! I…wanted you to know it was me so that you'd know who had finally defeated you. That statue would have stood as a monument to my genius and you smashed it to bits."

"But, you smashed it to bits," said Lucas, peeking out from behind Ness.

"Oh sure, pass the buck. Anyway, my attack on Onett succeeded in flushing you out, Ness, just as I planned and now I'm going to destroy you like you destroyed me," Porky roared. Then his voice became more conversational as he said, "I mean that figuratively, you understand. You didn't actually destroy me. I mean, I'm right here. I'm not dead, I…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," snapped Ness.

"Okay then." The spider robot reared up on its legs, ready to pounce. "Prepare to be obliterated!" The robot launched itself into the air, aiming for the two psychic heroes. "This one's for my statue!"

"But, he's the one who smashed it," reasoned Lucas.

"Lucas, just drop it," said Ness as he pushed his friend out of the way before the robot came crashing back down. Its spear-like legs jabbed deep into the ground as it landed, leaving gouges at least three feet deep in the dirt.

"Hey, you weren't supposed to dodge. That's cheating!"

Porky completely ignored Lucas and concentrated solely on attacking Ness, but each time it was child's play for the young psychic to evade the spider robot.

"Hold still!" bellowed Porky after the fourth failed attempt. "How can I crush you if you keep moving?"

"That's kind of the idea," quipped Ness as he dodged yet another ground pounding offensive.

"Grrrrr! Fine, have it your way. I'll just use this instead." The spider robot's back pair of legs rose up into the air, their tips touching. From this point, a spark of power sprang to life and a twisting beam of energy shot straight towards Ness.

The young boy reacted instantly, calling up an energy shield to deflect the blow. The energy beam hit true, but merely bounced off the blue rings now surrounding Ness. However, the beam didn't stop. Ness wasn't suffering any damage, but neither could he escape from underneath the assault. He was trapped.

Porky grinned from within his indestructible prison. He had Ness now. It was only a matter of time before the boy's energy wore out.

But Lucas wasn't about to let that happen if he could help it. And he wasn't absolutely positive that he could. Still, he had to do something to save his friend. So Lucas snuck up behind the spider robot and unleashed a flurry of his PK Fire.

The flames curled around the robot's legs and danced across its back, but didn't have any effect other than to provide a nice light show. The metal wasn't even singed. Nevertheless, Lucas kept trying with barrage after barrage, but he still wasn't doing any damage no matter how much fire he threw.

Lucas did succeed in one thing, though. Although Porky could not feel the heat of the fire, he did finally notice the smoke coming from the backside of his death machine. He had to turn the machine around almost 180 degrees – being careful to keep the energy beam directed at Ness – in order to see Lucas' strained face.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Porky.

"Um…attacking you?" was Lucas' feeble reply.

"Seriously? Well, knock it off; it's annoying." One of the spider legs came up to skewer Lucas, but Ness dived from the side to knock him out of the way. "What the? Where did you come from?"

"You shouldn't let yourself get so distracted, Porky," admonished Ness. When the potbellied tyrant had twisted around to look at Lucas, his energy beam had let up just the tiniest bit. It was enough to allow Ness to inch himself out from under it.

"This time you won't escape!" The back legs of Porky's machine rose up again, preparing another energy beam, but instead of shielding himself, Ness had another plan in mind.

"PK Flash!"

Ness' body took on an emerald glow as a bolt of green energy flew from his hands directly between the machine's back legs just as they connected. The green bolt pulsed and expanded, travelling down the legs and into the body of the spider bot. The robot quivered and shook while Porky looked around in a panic, desperately trying to figure out what was wrong. With a thunderous boom, the machine exploded, raining twisted and charred bits of metal down on Ness and Lucas. Lastly, Porky and his container thudded to the ground, with the young villain inside being bashed against the unbreakable glass.

"Oh, that's gonna bruise tomorrow," groaned Porky. On his hands and knees, he gazed around at his ruined creature with an unbelieving face. "No. No! NO! This isn't possible. I'm supposed to win. He said that I'd have you at my mercy!"

"Who said that?" Ness was staring down at Porky with anger and distain while Lucas stood not far behind. "And where did those shadow creatures come from?"

"Bah! I'm not going to tell you anything," spat Porky as he made several very rude hand gestures that will not be described here.

"Porky…" Ness' voice took on a threatening tone. "You tell me who sent you or…"

"Or what?" Porky snapped. "What are you gonna do? You can't get through the container." He knocked on the inside of it to emphasize his point. "There's nothing you can do to me and there's nothing you can say to get me to talk."

Ness' scowl morphed into a sly grin. "Well if that's the case, I guess there's no reason to keep you around here, is there?"

"That's right…wait, what are you doing?" Ness placed his hands under the cylindrical container and with a steady push, started rolling it. "Hey! Cut that out!" A few more pushes and the container had enough momentum to roll by itself. The two psychic friends watched as Porky rolled out of sight, shouting, "You haven't seen the last of me. You will pay for this humiliation. Oh, I'm getting dizzy. I'm gonna hurl."

"That was awesome, Ness," gushed Lucas. "And thanks for saving my life, you know, again."

"Thank you, Lucas. And you're welcome," said Ness modestly. Then his voice turned stern again. "Now let's get back to why you're here and not back in your house. I told you to wait for me while I investigated the attack."

Lucas faltered for a bit as he tried to explain himself. "Well I-I was scared to stay in town in case those things came back so I went looking to see if anyone else was around. Plus, I thought maybe I could help you out, you know?" The young boy looked up and cringed, fearing Ness' reaction.

The psychic hero sighed in resignation. Maybe he had sounded a little harsher than he'd meant to, but he was only worried for his friend's safety. Ness and Lucas had known each other since they were babies and quickly became best friends. Both being only children, Lucas had always looked up to Ness as a kind of big brother figure, even though they were only a few months apart in age. The more courageous and confident Ness would often protect the insecure and easily frightened Lucas.

It wasn't that long ago when they both discovered their psychic powers. Ness considered them to be a blessing and used them to help people wherever he could. Lucas, on the other hand, saw this newfound weirdness as just another thing to be frightened of and promptly refused any part of them. A little couching on Ness' part helped to change Lucas' mind, but the boy's passive personality prevented him from using his powers to the fullest. Of the two, Ness felt that Lucas actually possessed the greater potential, but he could not think of a way to help him bring it out.

Putting his hand on his friend's shoulder, Ness adopted a gentler tone. "I appreciate you wanting to help, Lucas, but I don't think you're ready for this level of adventure. This is some serious stuff and whoever controls those shadow things is playing for keeps."

"Yeah and I guess you don't need me getting in the way while you fight them," moaned Lucas, utterly dejected. "I'm useless."

"That's not true," Ness said quickly. "You've got the makings of a true hero. I know you've got it in you, but now might not be the best time to try and find it. Let's just concentrate on keeping you safe."

Lucas had perked up a little bit at Ness' praise. He managed a small smile for his pseudo big brother. "Thanks, Ness."

"Isn't this touching?"

The two psychic boys looked up. Standing on top of a nearby building was Wario with his Dark Cannon. "If this scene gets any sweeter, I'm gonna start getting cavities."

"Hey, who are you?" asked Lucas.

For the second time that day, a villain ignored Lucas. Wario took in the mass of metal pieces scattered all over the ground. With a sneer, he said, "I knew that fat brat wouldn't be able to handle the job. Should'a just sent me in the first place."

"You're working with Porky?" demanded Ness.

Wario put his cannon on the ground and leaned casually against it as he answered. "Not exactly. More like I was sent to babysit and make sure he didn't screw up."

"Kind of dropped the ball on that, didn't he?" Lucas whispered to Ness.

"Now it's time for me to take you out." Wario brought up his Dark Cannon and trained it on the pair of psychics. He didn't shoot though. In fact, he looked quite confused. "He said to bring back the kid in the striped shirt, but he didn't mention there'd be two of ya. So which one should I take? Eenie, meenie, miney, moe…"

"Shouldn't we be running for our lives or something?" begged Lucas, but Ness didn't answer him, instead keeping his eyes on this new threat. This stranger with the large mustache mentioned that he'd been sent by someone, possible the same person Porky had been working for. This was a chance to get some information.

"…Y-O-you shall not be it. Aha!" Wario had made his choice and targeted Ness with the cannon. The black arrow-shaped laser zoomed down from Wario's parapet, but, just like with the spider robot, Ness had no trouble dodging it. The mustachioed villain fired again and again, but Ness was too agile to catch. Being able to read his opponent's mind was a big help too.

Wario, never the patient type, was quickly getting frustrated. Trying to shoot this kid was just too much work and besides, Mario was the one he really wanted. He couldn't come back empty handed though. That's when he noticed Lucas again. The boy hadn't moved as he watched Ness jumping and flipping about. One striped-shirted kid was as good as another, right? What's the difference?

With a careless shrug, Wario redirected the cannon so it was pointing at Lucas. The younger boy gasped in shock. It took his brain a minute to come up with a plan: RUN! By then, it was too late. The cannon had fired and the black laser was coming right for him.

"No, Lucas!"

The young boy just stood there with his eyes clamped shut, waiting for the impact, hoping it wouldn't hurt too much. Seconds dragged on for hours as he waited. When it finally did come, it wasn't nearly as bad as he imagined. It just felt like someone had pushed him to the side; it was almost gentle. But, wait, shouldn't he have been hit from the front?

The wind was knocked out of Lucas' lungs as the ground came up to meet him. His eyes involuntarily sprang open just in time to see Ness also fall to the ground – in Trophy form.

"Ness?" With trembling fingers, Lucas reached out to the immobile figure of his friend. His hand stopped dead in the air when he heard Wario's awful laughter.

The villain jumped down from his building vantage point, landing right in front of Lucas, who scrambled to back away from him. Wario picked up the Ness trophy by its head. "Another hero out of commission," he taunted as he waggled the trophy in front of Lucas. "You want to try and take him back?"

The psychic boy looked from Ness' frozen face to Wario's gloating mug and back to Ness. He stood up slowly, mind clouded and muddled; he didn't know what to do. Then, just as they had at the zoo's entrance, his legs made the decision for him and he ran. He ran away from Wario, from Ness, from the zoo and from the darkness. He couldn't fight and he couldn't save his friend. Ness was the hero, not him.

_I'm sorry_ was the last thought in Lucas' mind as he left the tragic scene behind with tears in his eyes and the sound of Wario's triumphant laughter in his ears.

* * *

_And there you have it. I hope you all enjoyed it. I was actually planning to move some of the Fox and Diddy stuff to another chapter to make this one shorter, but truthfully, I couldn't think of where else to put it. Ah, well. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. I'll do my best to get the next chapter up sooner. In the meantime, be on the lookout for a couple of one shot stories I plan to put up._


	6. Chapter 6

_Hello, everyone, I'm back once again. I'd like to thank everyone who read and reviewed Chapter 5; I hope you all liked it. In this next section of the story, we continue to follow Subspace's relentless march across the Smash Bros. world. So please enjoy Chapter 6._

* * *

**Chapter 6 – War…War Never Changes**

"I see him! He's just ahead of us!"

"Hurry! We've got to catch him!"

Mario's feet felt like lead and his breathing came in short pants as he tore down the dirt path, but he didn't dare slow down or spare the time to look back at the flying Pit to make sure he was keeping up behind him. After climbing back down from the cloud layer to solid ground, the duo had headed in the last direction Pit had seen the giant spaceship. After hours of searching, they hadn't found any trace of the ship or Princess Peach. Mario was just about to suggest trying a different direction when his young angel companion had spotted the Ancient Minister, calmly travelling along a dirt path on his flying platform, another Subspace bomb securely strapped underneath.

The two heroes had immediately sped up, rushing to intercept the villain, who didn't seem to notice he was being followed. At least at first. Just as Mario was within jumping distance, the Minister turned his head. His dull yellow eyes took in the panting plumber impassively as his flying platform rose up higher.

"Oh no you don't!" Winded as he was, that was the best witty remark Mario could come up with.

Ignoring his screaming leg muscles, the plumber hero put on a burst of speed and leapt up, making a grab for the Minister. The flying villain looked almost bored as he watched Mario try and stop him. With minimal effort, he deftly avoided the hero's outstretched hand by listing slightly to the left.

A disappointed groan escaped Mario's throat as the plumber drifted back down from the apex of his jump. Convinced of victory over the heroic nuisance, the Minister turned his eyes forward, only to look back again as an angry shout blasted through the air.

Pit surged forward and with one foot on Mario's head, launched himself higher into the air. He was now even with the Minister. The boy angel drew back an arrow, aiming to disable the flying platform, but before he could shoot, the Minister's eyes turned red and he fired a red laser beam. Pit immediately tried to swerve, but he was too close to dodge the attack completely. The laser pierced his right wing and with a cry of pain, he fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Pit didn't answer Mario's concerned question, but he did groan, which at least told the plumber his teammate was still alive. A quick look at the wing revealed no permanent damage – just a few ruffled feathers. Mario turned a heated glare at the Minister, but the green robed figure was already a distant speck on the horizon.

"Oooh," moaned Pit as he slowly got to his feet. "If Eggplant Wizard could hit that hard, Medusa would still be running Angel Land."

"Hey, you okay?" Mario asked again.

"Yeah, I think so." The angel rotated his arm and massaged his shoulder, letting out a hiss of pain. "I just need a second to recoup."

"Good," said a relieved Mario. Then he punched Pit hard on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for using my head as a springboard."

"Oh, don't be such baby," mocked Pit. "Don't you do that sort of thing to Goombas and Troopas on a daily basis?"

"Yeah," admitted Mario sheepishly. "I just never realized how much it hurt."

Pit ignored Mario's protest as he stared off into the distance, trying to find the Ancient Minister, but without success. He had escaped from view. "We're not going to catch the Ancient Minister just standing around here." After a couple of test flaps to make sure his wings were fine, Pit was airborne again. He took off with Mario close behind on foot.

"How do we know he's still going to be following this path?" Mario called up to the angel. "Now that he knows we're on his trail, he could just change direction – go over the mountains or something – and give us the slip."

Pit pondered that before looking down and saying, "Well, we know he was heading to somewhere at the end of this path, so we're guaranteed to catch up with him eventually if we keep following it. Even if the Minister does go a different way, at least we'll have stalled his plans a little bit. He might even have to bypass his next target completely. We may have just saved whatever place he was going to from oblivion."

Remembering Pit's account of the fate of Brawl Stadium, Mario sure hoped that the angel was right.

* * *

The rising sun cast a bloodied sky across an equally crimson battlefield. Broken arrow shafts stuck up from the ground like some deformed sort of vegetation. Catapults and similar engines of destruction lay abandoned or scattered in pieces. Every single blade of grass had been trampled and uprooted by the beat of thousands of heavy footsteps, leaving nothing to prevent the wind from kicking up great clouds of dust. Unmoving bodies lay sprawled on the ground, their faces frozen in terror or pain, their formerly polished armor damaged beyond repair.

A great battle had been fought here, that much was certain, but strangely, there were no bodies of fallen enemies.

A pair of cerulean eyes took in this unholy vista from atop the parapet of a grand stone castle. His similarly colored hair hung low on his forehead, just barely touching the tips of his eyes. His armor still gleamed in the dawn sunlight and a long cape billowed out behind him in the wind. A magnificent broadsword, its blade covered with ancient and powerful runes, hung on his hip.

**MARTH**

The young prince gazed out at his beloved Altea, a mixture of anger, sorrow and shock playing cross his face. He had not wanted to believe the rumors of a horde of shadow creatures ravaging his land, kidnapping his people and attacking his guards, but the testaments of the few survivors and the proof of the wounds they had suffered had been enough to convince him to treat this threat seriously.

Acting on the council of his advisers, Marth had gathered together his army and closest allies to confront this invading force right here at his country's capitol. Such a gathering of strength, the young prince had never seen before and he had been convinced that no force in the world could overcome the stalwart defenders.

That belief had quickly been proven wrong.

_So much death…_ Marth's soldiers had fought bravely; they'd barely flinched when the mass of shadowy creatures had materialized right out from under the ground. The creatures – Primids, he had learned they were called – had been unarmed, rather short, and seemingly unintelligent, but by no means were they harmless. The battle had barely begun when a line of Primids broke through the defensive ring and entered the castle. Marth and his personal guards had engaged the creatures with the castle walls and although they slaughtered the lot, the victory had not been without casualties.

Once the castle had been cleansed, Marth had returned to his lookout and had been dismayed to see most of his army had fallen. The Primid horde had also been sharply diminished, but it was clear that Marth's forces would not win this fight. He had immediately ordered the remainder of his person guards to escort the civilians in the castle to safety. They had not wanted to leave the prince alone, but he had turned a deaf ear to their arguments and left them to carry out his commands.

Now Marth stood alone, gazing forlornly at the deserted battlefield below him. All his soldiers had been slain. He felt a pang in his heart as he silently thanked them for their sacrifice. The Primids had been destroyed as well. A few still wandered the field, aimlessly making their way towards the castle, oblivious to the devastation around them.

Marth wasn't really worried about the stragglers. There were only (he took a moment to count) about a dozen of them. There was no question that they'd have to be destroyed though. Even one Primid left alive was an insult to the memory of his fallen warriors. He turned to reenter the castle when a short, brilliant flash of white light caught his eye.

It was gone in a second, making Marth think that it was just a beam of sunlight reflecting off a broken arrowhead or something. But then, a deep boom belatedly reached his ears and a dome of purple and black energy expanded long the horizon.

The prince walked back to the parapet, leaning as far has he could over the stone wall. He'd never seen a thing such as this in his entire life, but he immediately knew that it was connected in some way to the Primids' attack. Squinting his eyes, Marth could make out something else moving across the energy dome: one…no, two figures flying through the air. They were simply dark blobs at this distance, but Marth could tell they were headed his way.

"Well," he said to himself as he turned away from the parapet once more, wrapping his hand around the hilt of his sword, "I'll just have to go and greet them."

* * *

Two low-hanging branches of an old pine tree parted and Lucas cautiously stuck his head out to look around. The rainstorm that had started just after he'd left Onset had finally blown itself out. The young psychic had been forced to take cover in the forest, sitting on the hard, cold ground underneath the tree with the thickest branches he could find. Sleep was an infrequent visitor that night and Lucas had spent most of the long, dark hours listening to the rain fall and imagining that every other sound was a Primid or Wario searching for him.

Now it was morning and a clear blue sky greeted him, but even the warm, gentle touch of sunlight on his face couldn't cheer Lucas up.

The horrific events of last night hadn't been out of the boy's mind since he left the abandoned zoo in shame and what sleep he had gotten had been plagued by images of Wario's triumphant grin and Ness' unmoving, Trophified body.

He had failed his friend. There was no getting around that fact. What was worse, Lucas had no idea how to fix this situation. He knew he didn't have enough courage to go back to the zoo and Ness wouldn't be there anyway. Wario would have taken him to who knows where. He was truly alone now.

Meandering down the forest path, scuffing his shoes against the dirt, Lucas tried to figure out what to do, but he couldn't come up with anything. Ness would have known, but it was his fault that Ness wasn't there. He could go back to trying to find his parents or some other adults from his neighborhood. Surely they could rescue Ness. But Lucas didn't know where to look for them either.

"Maybe I'll just stay in the woods and live out the rest of my life as a hermit, eating bark and living in the dirt," he muttered bitterly.

With such self-depreciating thoughts filling his head, Lucas wasn't paying attention to the path and stopped short as he bumped into something blocking his way.

The young psychic looked up to see an older boy nearly twice as tall as him wearing blue jeans, a red jacket with black sleeves and matching shoes. A red and white cap sat atop spiky brown hair. A yellow backpack was slung over his shoulders.

**POKEMON TRAINER**

The trainer replaced a map he had been looking at back into his backpack and turned to face Lucas with a scowl. "Hey, watch where you're going," he said gruffly.

"Sorry," said Lucas in a very small voice. He started to go around the older boy with eyes downcast and head bowed, but stopped again when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, sorry I snapped at you," the trainer said in a much kinder voice. He saw the sorrow and worry clearly etched on Lucas' face. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the psychic said flatly.

The trainer wasn't convinced, but decided not to press the matter any further. "My name's Ashton, but everyone calls me Ash. And you?"

"I'm…" Lucas' eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he stared past at something behind Ash. His breathing became faster and his throat seized up on him. "Lo…lo…lo…"

"Lou?" asked Ash, thinking that was the kid's name and becoming bewildered at his behavior.

Lucas shook his head violently and shouted, "Look!"

A pile of Shadow Bugs sat on the forest path wriggling and squirming and crawling all over each other. Ash's face flashed back to another scowl as he cursed and turned to fully confront the battalion of Primids that had formed. These Primids had red skin instead of pale green and their fists were coated in gloves of orange flames.

"Aw, not these guys again," sighed Ash.

At the site of the fiery creatures, Lucas had sought cover behind the older boy. "You've seen them too?" he asked timidly.

"The Primids? Yeah, we've met." Then he flashed a confident grin at the frightened psychic. "But don't worry; I know just how to handle them." From his backpack, Ash pulled a marble-sized red and white ball with a button on the front. One press of the button and the marble doubled in size.

"Go Pokeball!"

Ash threw the ball into the air where, with a loud pop, it opened, spilling a kind of white and yellow energy onto the ground. The energy quickly took the form of a small blue turtle with a red shell.

**SQUIRTLE**

"Squirtle! Water gun attack!" ordered the trainer.

"Squirtle!" squeaked the little creature. It sucked in a great lungful of air and shot out a thin, but powerful jet of water. The water hit the first Primid in the group, immediately dowsing its flames and reducing the evil creature to subspace dust. The others all followed suit and soon the forest was Primid-free once again.

"Good job, Squirtle. Return." A red beam from the pokeball hit Squirtle and retracted the tiny turtle to its portable home. Ash carefully stored his little friend within his backpack, smiling at the astonished look on Lucas' face.

"How'd you do that?" the younger boy asked in awe.

"Water beats fire every time," Ash said wisely. "Now, before we were so rudely interrupted, I believe I was asking for your name?"

"Huh?" Lucas was still trying to get over the fact that this guy had just defeated a bunch of those shadow things and was acting like it was nothing. "Oh, my name. It's Lucas."

"A pleasure to meet you, Lucas," said Ash as he shook the young psychic's hand. "Are you a Pokémon trainer too?"

"A what trainer?"

"Pokémon: Pocket Monsters – like my friend, Squirtle, here," said Ash, patting the pocket on his backpack where said friend was comfortably resting. "I've been collecting and training them since I was just a kid. I'm going to be the top trainer in the world someday."

"I've never seen a creature like Squirtle around here," said Lucas.

"Yeah," agreed Ash sadly. "I have noticed that the pickings are pretty slim around these parts. Not many trainers come out this way, so I was hoping that would mean I'd have less competition and get some really good new Pokémon. So far, it's been kind of a disappointment."

Ash kneeled down closer to Lucas and dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "But, just between you and me, I've heard rumors of some kind of dragon creature hiding out in some old ruins nearby."

Lucas nodded. He knew the place the older boy spoke of: a single jagged mountain spire with a cave entrance that had been exposed long ago after a rockslide. It was a favorite test of courage among the Onset children to see how far into the pitch-black cavern they dared to go. Lucas inwardly cringed as he remembered how he hadn't been able to put more than one toe across the entrance.

"You, uh, you think that this dragon is a Pokémon?" the young psychic asked hesitantly.

Ash just shrugged and smiled as he stood back up. "Can't know for sure unless I check it out, right? Besides, I'll need some serious firepower if I'm going to fight the Primids. So, how about you? What are you doing way out here by yourself?"

The Pokémon trainer could immediately tell that his question had struck a nerve. Lucas shrank back, dropped his head and started sniffling. Ash was sure that he was trying to hold back tears. Feeling guilty, the older boy placed a gentle hand on the shoulder of the younger one. "Hey, hey, it's okay. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"M-My friend w-was c-captured," sobbed Lucas. He told Ash about the attack on his hometown, the zoo and his own encounters with the Primids and Wario.

Ash listened attentively, nodding his head in sympathy at the boy's story. It was a real tearjerker. Hearing what Wario had done really got the young trainer's blood boiling. He felt like finding the guy and bringing the hurt with his own two fists; Ash had taken care of his share of bullies in his lifetime.

Once Lucas had gotten himself under control, he looked up at Ash, his eyes very watery and filled with emotion. He seemed to be silently asking for help. Ash knew what the best course of action would be, but he was hesitant to suggest it.

Despite being friendly and outgoing, Ash was a loner. He always helped out a person in need when he could, but he preferred to travel alone, thinking that a larger group would only slow him down on his way to greatness. However, the boy before him needed help and he could not just leave him here in the woods.

"You know," Ash said slowly, "maybe it would be a good idea for you to come with me."

Lucas' face instantly perked up at this idea, but he was still hesitant. After all, he barely knew this Pokémon trainer, but somehow, the young psychic couldn't help but trust him. "Are you sure that's okay?"

"Absolutely," said Ash in a confident voice. "If we keep fighting Primids, we're bound to find your friend and your parents."

Privately, Lucas thought that was a long shot, but Ash's upbeat attitude was lifting his own spirits. For the first time in what felt like forever, Lucas smiled. "Let's go!"

* * *

Marth was not a warrior prone to show fear, even in the most ominous of circumstances. When Altea had been invaded, he withstood the humiliation of exile with stoic acceptance. When his sister had been taken hostage, he angrily swore revenge on any who might hurt her. And when it came time to face the dreaded dragon, Medeus, and win back his kingdom, he entered the fray with naught but courage and determination in his heart.

Now, the sight before him gave the young prince pause. The dome of purple and black energy had looked big even from afar, but now that Marth was right in front of it, he could see that it was astoundingly huge; large enough to engulf his entire castle. That thought sent an involuntary shiver along his spine. He actually had to force himself not to back away. As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, this thing, whatever it was, frightened him. He could not say exactly why, but he felt a dark and foreboding presence nearby.

His pride would not let him turn away, though, and so he took a few steps forward. The wind was swirling around the phenomenon; its own personal hurricane, trying to push Marth ever closer. Blue eyes stared hard as the energy on the dome's surface bent and swirled like a dancer's body. It was mesmerizing and Marth found that he could not look away. Without even realizing it, he stretched his right hand out to touch the dome.

When his fingers were just inches from the dome's surface, a bitter cold shot through Marth's skin, travelling all the way to his shoulder before he could jerk his hand back. The prince retreated several feet, cradling his numb arm and rubbing it fiercely. After a moment, the feeling returned to his limb accompanied by the sensation of a thousand pinpricks across his skin which subsided quickly enough.

Marth did not try to get that close to the dome again. As the prince was debating his next move, he heard the faint sound of flapping wings. He turned to look and saw the silhouette of a flying creature. At first, he dismissed it as a large bird, but as the figure came closer, Marth saw it was actually a person. A weird looking person, mind you. His body was a round ball with two short arms and two feet clad in purple boots. A metal mask hid this being's face with just two bright yellow eyes showing through. A golden sword was in his hand and two bat wings were on his back.

**META KNIGHT**

From the angle Marth had seen him, it looked as if the flying figure had appeared from out of the dome. This person could give Marth information about this strange energy. He might even be responsible for the attack on the castle.

Drawing his sword, Marth ran full speed at the flying creature to intersect it. Meta Knight seemed not to notice the charging prince, his attention focused solely upon some unknown objective in front of him. A lapse in defense the knight would berate himself for later.

Marth managed to get underneath Meta Knight at which point the masked figure finally saw the danger he was in. With a mighty leap, the prince thrust his sword upward it was only by the merest of inches that Meta Knight managed to avoid being impaled. The masked flyer lost control of himself for a moment, caught in a tailspin towards the hard-packed ground. At the last second, he managed to straighten himself, straining every fiber in his wings, and managed to land somewhat gently.

Meta Knight stared daggers at the young prince before him. His yellow eyes narrowed. "Don't interfere, if you value your life." The knight's voice was low and controlled, but held plenty of malice.

"It is your life you should be concerned with," replied Marth, matching the flying knight's threatening tone in kind.

Gold met silver as the two warrior's swords clashed together in a frightening dance. Meta Knight took to the air again and flitted around Marth's head and chest, looking for an opening, but he couldn't find any. The young prince was able to match the smaller warrior's speed and skill.

The battle had lasted only a few seconds when Marth noticed, over Meta Knight's shoulder, three Primids. Reinforcements for their commander, of that, he was sure. Alone, Marth could handle the Primids without a problem, but together with the knight, they could overwhelm him. The warrior prince feigned to the right. When Meta Knight mirrored his movement, Marth spun pass the knight and struck all three Primids down in one slice. The dark creatures exploded in a burst of Shadow Bugs.

Then, Marth heard a similar explosion behind him. He turned to see Meta Knight standing amid the remains of three more Primids. With a jolt, the prince realized that those Primids must have snuck up behind him while he was fighting Meta Knight. If not for the stranger, Marth might have been slain before he even knew what was happening. It occurred to him then that they may just have saved each other's life.

The two warriors stood like statues, still wary, but with a newfound respect for each other. Dimly, Marth noticed that Meta Knight's bat wings had somehow morphed into a purple cape with gold trim.

Marth tried to find the right words to break the silence. "You destroyed the Primids," he said stupidly.

"Yes." Meta Knight's voice was still deep, but no longer threatening. "I have been fighting them for some time. When you attacked, I assumed you were with them. I'm sorry," he said with a small bow.

The prince smartly returned the bow and said, "No, no, it is I who must apologize. I thought you were aligned with those creatures who have been ransacking my kingdom. I jumped to conclusions and it seems I owe you my life."

The masked knight glanced at the Primids Marth had defeated as they melted back into darkness. "I think we can call it even. I regret the destruction of your kingdom and that I could not stop the Ancient Minister from detonating the Subspace Bomb."

At Marth's questioning look, Meta Knight pointed back towards the dome of pulsing energy. "Is that what caused this? But why?"

"I do not know," admitted Meta Knight. "I only know that the Minister and his robotic minions have been detonating bombs all across this world. I was in pursuit of him before our little misunderstanding."

Marth felt more than a twinge of guilt at that, but decided not to say anything. "This Minister, he is planning to activate another of these devises?"

"Almost certainly."

"Would his target be in Altea?" Fear for his home crept into the prince's voice.

"It is a possibility." Meta Knight turned a steely gaze towards Marth. "I give you my word I will do everything in my power to prevent more harm from befalling your land." His cape transformed back into wings and with two flaps he was off the ground. Meta Knight made to continue his pursuit when Marth called for him to wait.

"Let me accompany you," the prince hero said. "It's the least I can do after falsely attacking you and besides, I have to destroy this threat to my kingdom."

Meta Knight hesitated and Marth could tell he was seriously considering refusing. But then, the knight simply shrugged and said, "If you wish, but we must hurry."

Marth gave a grim nod and the two companions sped off in search of their foe.

* * *

A lone robot, the same kind that had been present at the Brawl Stadium before it exploded – or imploded or whatever – rolled at a leisurely pace down the otherwise deserted corridor. The whir from its wheel motors reverberated off the metal walls, ceiling, and floor, creating an almost unbearable din. The robot didn't mind, though. In fact, it didn't even notice the noise since it was so intent on its current task.

Held between its claw-like arms was a small tray containing a cup of water and a bowl of some kind of green-grey sludgy substance that was doing a remarkably poor job of masquerading as actual food. Although, it would have been considered a gourmet meal in any regional public high school.

The robot continued on its way until it reached an elevator which it used to travel down to the very bottom level. Whereas the metallic surroundings had been polished to a brilliant shine up top, down here dust and grime were permanent residents. There was hardly any lighting; the robot was forced to use its infrared sensors to see where it was going. Not that he had any fear of getting lost. It had made this trek many times before.

Eventually the robot turned down the dankest and dirtiest corridor yet: the prison wing. The path stretched out farther than the non-robotic eye could see. Arched openings were spaced every ten feet or so, indicating separate cells which appeared to be holding nothing but darkness and scrounging rodents who had managed to tunnel their way in. The robot made its way past dozens of these empty cells, each shut tight with a grid of thick, dull steel bars, until it got to a particular one. The bars on this cell gave off a very potent yellow glow. If anyone touched these bars, they'd be in for the shock of their lives.

Because the bars were electrified. Get it? It's a play on words; shock, electric.

Never mind; moving on.

With the utmost care, the robot placed the tray on the floor directly in front of the bars. It then rolled over to a keypad set into the wall and pressed a series of buttons. A panel set within the floor dropped the food tray out of sight and lifted it back up within the confines of the cell.

The tray sat untouched inside the cell for a span of several minutes. In that time, the robot waited patiently off to the side. Finally, the clanking sound of chains indicated that something was stirring within the small chamber. As it came closer to the door, the light of the glowing bars slowly revealed a woman in a skin-tight blue jumpsuit and boots. Thick steel manacles were clamped on her wrists and ankles. A long blond ponytail hung limply down her neck and back, partially concealing a metal collar.

**ZERO SUIT SAMUS**

Once Samus had revealed herself, the robot rolled into sight of its prisoner. The moment she saw it, her calm facade morphed into an angry, defiant glare. The bounty hunter got as close to the electrified bars as her chains would allow and started shouting at the robot. "Who are you? Why am I here? Where are my power suit and my ship?"

The robot merely stared back dispassionately, giving no intention that it would answer. With a huff, Samus took a single step back away from the bars. Her eyes glanced down at the tray with the slop and water before returning to the android prison warden. Now that Samus had acknowledged the meal that it had brought, the robot felt its job was done and turned to go back.

"Wait a minute!" demanded Samus, noisily struggling against her shackles. "Come back here! Where am I? Who are you working for?" But there was no response. There never was. When she was sure the robot wasn't coming back, Samus ceased rattling her chains and allowed herself to relax. Ignoring the food tray, she retreated to the shadows at the back of the cell and sat down to think.

It had been two weeks since her capture and she was still upset at herself for allowing it to happen. True, bounty hunting was a dangerous profession. You spent your time chasing after the most dangerous villains in the galaxy, many of whom were simultaneously chasing after you. More than one criminal mastermind had put a price on her head large enough to entice even the most inexperienced hunters to grab fame by trying to defeat the great Samus Aran. This was hardly the first time she'd been captured and although Samus prided herself on always escaping with ease, it vexed her every time it happened.

Although, Samus supposed that her current predicament could be considered a special case. She had been familiar with every other hunter she had tangled with in the past and thus knew how to defeat them. This time she was completely in the dark.

The creatures had swarmed her ship while Samus had been in deep space. They simply appeared out of nowhere, overpowering her within minutes. The creatures had been only half her size, but deceptively strong and their numbers were more than enough to take her down.

The next thing she knew, the bounty hunter had been strapped down on a table in some sort of laboratory, surrounded by robots; the same kind as the one who delivered her food. Her power suit's reserves were dangerously low. She had no strength to fight back and could only watch in horror as the robots used their viciously painful tools to remove her armor. Samus winced at the memory and automatically rubbed a hand over one of several bruises she had received.

Now, without her suit and locked up, things seemed hopeless for her. That's exactly what Samus wanted her captors to think.

"I think it's about time I left," Samus said with a smile. "Wouldn't want to wear out my welcome, would I?" The bounty hunter had been hoping that she'd be able to get some information during her imprisonment, but the robot who brought her food was hardly the talkative type. The only other people she'd seen were a group of other prisoners that had been brought down the other day. They had looked like simple townsfolk. Most of the men were sporting bleeding cuts or black eyes while the women and children wailed for lost loved ones. Samus had watched from the shadows as the robots paraded them past. The group's despair hardened Samus' resolve. They had to be helped before something awful happened to them.

Before she could help anyone, however, Samus needed her power suit. She glanced up at the ceiling of her cell and saw a small ventilation shaft. Vents were a widely popular mode of prison escape and her captors obviously knew this. Upon her first inspection, Samus had discovered that while the vent duct was large enough for her to fit through, the grate was sealed too tightly to the ceiling for her to get off without tools. And besides, she couldn't climb up there in chains anyway.

She could just barely reach into the grate with her fingers, though. With a grunt of effort, Samus pulled against the restraints as much as she could, standing on tiptoe so she could run her fingers along the inside lip of the grate and find the small plasma laser that normally would be hidden in a secret compartment in her boot. The first day the robots had thrown Samus in the cell, she'd hid the laser in the vent in case they decided to come back and search her.

"I never did care much for jewerly." It took a few minutes for the small plasma beam to cut through all the manacles. Soon enough Samus was free. She paused only a moment to rub the sore, red circles around her neck, wrists and ankles before using the laser to cut the grate off of the vent. Then, with a graceful leap, Samus shimmied her way into the ventilation system.

* * *

Marth and Meta Knight ran and flew respectively across the war torn landscape towards the flying figure in robes. Catching up to the Ancient Minister had been fairly easy, but stopping him was an altogether different matter. Like Mario and Pit, neither of the sword-wielding heroes could get close enough to attack the Minister. Marth couldn't get enough height and Meta Knight was driven back by the lasers.

They refused to give up, though, which was beginning to annoy the Minister. On the outside he remained impassive, showing no emotion, but inwardly he seethed with irritation and wished for nothing more than for these heroes to go away and let him do his job. They could not hope to stop him, so why did they bother to try. Their interference was only slowing down his progress and threatening his people. That thought brought forth a surge of anger in the Minister and he shot out a fierce barrage of laser beams, aiming at the heroes, the ground, the sky, anywhere and everywhere.

Marth and Meta Knight were forced to completely halt their assault due to the brutal attack and couldn't do anything except try to shield themselves. When the attack finally stopped, they saw the Minister had gained quite a bit of ground on them.

The Minister was upset with himself for losing control of his emotions like that, but at least it succeed in driving the heroes back. The flying platform picked up speed as a much calmer Minister rushed off to his next target. Out of the corner of his eye, the Minister saw a glint of gold and a flash of light. What now?

Before he could fully turn his head, the flying platform underneath him buckled and the Minister found himself struggling to regain control as he swerved and spiraled wildly in the air. The platform twisted and he was able to see the Subspace Bomb he had been carrying lying in the dirt; the claw that had attached it to the flying platform sliced cleanly in two. Beside the bomb stood a third warrior – one with short blue hair holding a long golden sword and wearing battered armor and a torn cape.

**IKE**

The new warrior stuck his sword point down in the ground, leaning casually against it like a cane. He gave a two fingered salute to the retreating Minister and shouted jovially, "Thanks for stopping by and for this wonderful going away present. Feel free to never come back again." Ike continued to watch the Minister disappear as Marth and Meta Knight hurried over to him and the fallen bomb.

When he caught up to Ike, Marth grimaced as if he'd just seen something unpleasant. "What are you doing here?" He asked harshly.

"You're welcome."

"Huh?"

Ike turned to Marth and smiled widely. "Well, I just figured that you'd want to thank me from stopping that guy on the platform from attacking you."

"Thanks, but we were trying to catch him. You let him escape."

"Picky, picky, picky," said Ike, shaking his head. He gestured to the bomb. "At least I got your thing here back. What is this, anyway?" Ike reached out towards the bomb, but a vise-like grip stopped him cold.

Ike turned a surprised face towards Meta Knight. "Do not touch it," the knight warned in a voice that would brook no argument. Only when Ike nodded his understanding did Meta Knight release his wrist. "Who are you?"

Marth was the one who answered. "His name's Ike. He's a local mercenary."

"I prefer the term, 'Military Entrepreneur'," said Ike.

Marth rolled his eyes. "Basically, he has no ties to any King or Lord, but his loyalty can be bought by the highest bidder."

"You make me sound like some kind of assassin for higher," said a mockingly shocked Ike.

"Aren't you?" insisted Marth.

"Well, maybe," admitted Ike. He wagged a finger playfully in front of Marth's face. "Just remember, I never attacked anyone that didn't deserve it."

"Well, that makes it alright then, doesn't it?" Brushing rudely past Ike, Marth continued, "Now, if you will excuse us, Meta Knight and I must be going."

"Gonna chase after that Minister guy?" guessed Ike.

"Yes," answered Meta Knight, "but the Ancient Minister is only part of the problem. He works for a being from the realm of Subspace."

"Subspace, huh?" Ike had a strange gleam in his eye when he heard this news.

Behind Ike's back, Marth was silently trying to signal Meta Knight to stop talking, but the smaller warrior either ignored him or didn't understand and simply continued. "I do not know the identity of the one behind this, but his army of dark soldiers has come to ravage our world. He has been attacking Marth's kingdom."

"Yeah, I heard about that. Darn shame." Ike looked over his shoulder to see Marth slap his forehead. He had not wanted Ike to know about the attacks on Altea. "Sounds like you could use some professional help," said Ike. "I'd offer, but I'm not sure you could afford me right now, what with your kingdom in shambles and all."

The young prince threw a hateful glare at the mercenary's smiling countenance. "We don't need your assistance anyway. The two of us are perfectly fine on our own."

"On the contrary," injected Meta Knight as two pairs of blue eyes turned towards him, "I think a warrior of Ike's skill would be of use to us. After all, he landed a blow on the Ancient Minister when we could not."

"See Marth, now this guy is talking sense." Ike put his arm around Meta Knight's shoulders like he was an old friend. The knight just stared balefully at Ike until even the carefree warrior grew unnerved and withdrew his arm. "So, ah, about my payment…"

Without taking his yellow eyes off of Ike, Meta Knight slipped a hand inside his cloak and withdrew a blood red ruby the size of his fist. Ike's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide when he saw the jewel. He was practically drooling. As his hand twitched to reach out and take the treasure, Meta Knight said, "Help us in our cause…," with a flick of his hand, the jewel vanished, "…and I will personally see that you are aptly rewarded. _After_ the Subspace army has been defeated."

"Sounds like we have a deal!" exclaimed Ike as he firmly shook Meta Knight's hand. "Let's get going. The sooner we get rid of these Subspace creeps, the sooner I can have my payday."

"Wait, what about this?" asked Marth, pointing to the Subspace bomb.

"Yeah, doesn't exactly enhance the landscape, does it?" mused Ike. "Maybe we should take it with us? Use Subspace's own technology against it?"

Marth looked at the bomb which was as tall as he was and at least five times as heavy. "Are you volunteering to carry it?" he asked Ike.

"Whoa, pack mule services are gonna cost you extra."

"No, we cannot take it with us and we cannot use it." Meta Knight's eyes narrowed and his round body stiffened as he spoke. "This device cannot be allowed to exist."

"Well, okay," said Ike. "So how do we…" The mercenary's voice trailed off as he noticed that the light from the morning sun had seemed to grow dimmer. He tried to mention this to his companion and saw that Meta Knight had a dark aura surrounding him. The eyes began to glow from some light from within and his cape changed color from a royal purple to blacker than midnight. With a flick of his wrist, the knight threw his cape (which had somehow grown in size) over the bomb, completely concealing it. No sooner had the fabric touched when a white flash almost blinded Marth and Ike. Meta Knight flung his cape (now normal sized) back around his shoulders and the Subspace bomb had disappeared.

"What in the world? What was that?" asked Ike.

"What happened to the bomb?" was Marth's question.

"Creatures from Subspace are not the only ones who can harness the power of darkness," Meta Knight said cryptically. "I could not destroy the bomb for fear of releasing the evil energies inside. Instead I sent it to another dimension where it would cause no harm."

The knight walked past his stunned companions to continue on their adventure, but paused to say. "By the way, Ike, I hope that you will not suddenly decide to 'take a better offer' and abandon us in the middle of this quest. Such a thing would make me very disappointed." Meta Knight casually fingered the fringe of his cape as he spoke.

Ike quickly held up his hands and shook his head to indicate that no, he would not be taking any other offers whatsoever until this current deal was done. "You may have to buy my loyalty, but I never renege on a contract."

"Especially when you've made said contract with a person capable of wiping you from existence," said Marth smugly.

Ike shot him a glare as the two swordsmen followed Meta Knight down the trail of the Ancient Minister and his Subspace master.

* * *

_This chapter was a challege because I never played the Fire Emblem games so I had to do a little bit of research on Marth and Ike and basically made up a personality for them without any basis to start from. All things considered, I don't think they turned out too bad. The sections with Marth, Ike, and Meta Knight are the sections of the Subspace Emissary game I dread the most just because I don't like how those characters respond to the controls, although Meta Knight's pretty good. I swear I have not let that prejudice influence my writing. Next chapter I'll be introducing Link and Yoshi and we'll catch up with Kirby, Zelda, and Luigi. And a misunderstanding will lead allies to fight each other. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome._


	7. Chapter 7

_Hello, everyone. I'ts been a while, but I'm back with another chapter. Thanks to all who read and left a review. After the doom and gloom atmosphere of the last two chapters, this one is a little more light hearted and hopefully funnier, but I'll leave that for you to judge. Without further ado: Chapter 7. I do not own Smash Bros., the game, the characters, Nintendo, or the state of Montana._

* * *

**Chapter 7 – I Have Fury**

The majestic light of the morning sun peaked out over the winding mountain path, setting the surrounding grassy knolls ablaze. Half-formed pillars of rock, forgotten relics of the ancient past, blushed gold in the sunlight, glowing as if alive. From this magnificent scene, a figure appeared with the morning star at his back so that he seemed to arrive in an explosion of color.

This figure stood tall, surveying the land for any foolish enough to dare confront him. His body was unadorned with neither armor nor shield; a true warrior has no use for such frivolous things. He carried no weapon; his hands deadly enough for any foe. His face was expressionless; a regal profile that no one would not recognize. A true hero in every sense of the word.

Could this be the world's true hope against the Subspace threat? Surely a warrior such as this would have no equal. The living embodiment of heroism, come to turn the tide of battle against…

Oh wait, it's Luigi.

The younger Mario Brother stood frozen on the dirt path, hesitating as to whether he should continue on or head back home. When he had first started on this journey, his anxiety over Mario – having just seen him catapulted out of Brawl Stadium – had produced an uncharacteristic bout of bravery, overriding his baser instincts and allowing him to rush out to his older brother's aide. Now, however, having found no trace of his sibling anywhere, Luigi had the chance to actually think about what he was doing.

He had left the Mushroom Kingdom with no help, no supplies, no idea who had attacked the stadium and no clue as to where he should go. That realization had severely dampened Luigi's spirit and reduced him to the quivering, cowardly sidekick that he truly was.

"Hey," shouted Luigi, "That's a little uncalled for."

Just tellin' it like is, Baby Cakes.

With a harrumph and an annoyed scowl, Luigi tentatively continued down the path, moving so slowly and lightly that his boots barely picked up any dust. He continued to scan the countryside carefully, though his eyes never stayed on one spot for more than a second. Luigi's breathing was a little rapid and he constantly held up his hands in a defensive manner.

"Okay, Luigi, you can do this," the green-clad plumber said. "Mario's counting on you. You're big bro does this adventuring thing all the time; so can you. You'll just have to battle your way through hoards of Troopas and monsters with scaly skins and dripping fangs and burning eyes and WHAT'S THAT?"

Coming towards Luigi was a Waddle Dee, a short, round figure with orange skin, stubby arms and big feet. Not really that threatening looking. But to Luigi's overactive imagination, the Waddle Dee might as well have been ten feet tall and breathing fire.

Instantly, Luigi jumped off the path and into a half crouch, his fists clenched and ready to strike. As the round little creature got closer, the plumber's arms started to shake and his knees began knocking. The Waddle Dee stopped right in front of Luigi, slowly turned and gave a blank stare before indifferently continuing on its way.

Luigi's body sagged with great relief as he watched the Waddle Dee disappear down the mountain path. "Crisis averted," he said, feeling very content until he turned and noticed a second Waddle Dee in front of him. "YAH!" This second Waddle Dee watched Luigi's frightened leap dispassionately before it too shuffled away.

The younger plumber picked himself off the ground and, attempting to preserve some dignity, shouted, "Yeah, you better run!"

"Okay, Luigi, pull yourself together," he said, slapping himself lightly on his cheeks. "I'm a Mario Brother, an adventurer, a hero! I can do this; I just can't let them catch me off guard. I've gotta keep my eyes peeled and my ears to the ground. Hyper-aware of my surroundings. Nobody's gonna sneak up on this plumber!"

A yellow gloved hand tapped Luigi heavily on the shoulder.

"Yes?" Luigi asked innocently.

WHAM!

Luigi received a massive smack from a giant wooden hammer right in the kisser. His scream of pain faded as he flew straight up. His attacker was a large blue-skinned penguin-like creature wearing a red fur-lined cloak and hat. A wide belt with yellow and red triangles encircled his rotund belly.

**KING DEDEDE**

The portly king shielded his eyes from the sun as he watched the plumber spin out of sight. A few moments later, a dark shape grew larger as it came back down. Before it fell to the ground, Dedede expertly caught it with one of the flat sides of his mallet. It was Luigi's Trophified form.

"Ha ha ha! You should paid attention to what was behind you, Mr. Hyper-aware." laughed Dedede. He paused a moment to admire his new acquisition. "Not a bad start."

Two Waddle Dees rushed up to their king and waved their hands frantically.

"What is it?" asked Dedede, sounding annoyed.

One of the minions pointed down the road from where they'd come. Dedede set the Luigi trophy on the ground and took out a pair of binoculars. In the distance, a cloud of dust heralded the imminent arrival of Wario in a hovercraft. The villain's approach seemed to upset, or perhaps frighten, the Waddle Dees, but their king didn't care. What interested him more were the two trophies stored snuggly in the hovercraft's cargo basket.

"It's my lucky day," said Dedede with a smile. "Three trophies for the price of one. Hurry up and hide." This command was directed at the Waddle Dees. One followed the king around a nearby hill. The other one reached for the Luigi trophy, wanting to secure its king's prize.

"Leave it!" barked Dedede. The Waddle Dee looked confused, but did not argue with the king's order and joined him behind the hill.

Less than a minute later, Wario's hovercraft came into view. The villain himself looked as content as if he was cruising along the beach in Isle Delphino. Until he got to the trophy of Luigi. As soon as he saw it, his beady little eyes bulged out and he brought his hovercraft to a screeching halt.

"Ho ho! Look who it is," cried Wario happily. "Mario's widdle baby bwother. Ha ha." He smacked the trophy around a few times, hoping that Luigi could still somehow feel it. "Now I've got you and Mario's sweetheart," he said with a glance to the trophy of Princess Peach in his hovercraft. "This is almost as good as having Mario himself."

Lifting the Luigi trophy over his head, Wario cheered, "And the best is: I didn't have to do any work to get you. That's the best kind of victory there is. Isn't that right, little guy? Ha ha…huh?"

Wario looked down and saw a Waddle Dee standing right next to him. The round little creature's blank stare was unnerving to the villain.

"Get lost, Punk," spat Wario. When the Waddle Dee refused to move, Wario kicked it away. "I said, get lost." Wario grinned. There were few pleasures in life better than picking on those smaller then you.

"Now, back to my evil laugh. Ha ha ha ha…ha ha…ha…wha?"

Wario's joy was quickly cut short as he realized that he was now surrounded by dozens of Waddle Dees. The minions just stood looking at Wario for a moment before rushing him and tackling him to the ground.

"Ow! Hey, get off! Don't touch that! Stop it!"

The mustached villain tried to fight back, swinging Luigi's trophy like a club, but he was grossly outnumbered and it didn't take long for the Waddle Dee hoard to rip the trophy from Wario's hands and throw it into the hovercraft where King Dedede now sat in the driver's seat.

"Thanks for the trophies, Wario," called Dedede over the stomping of the Waddle Dee herd. "I promise I'll take good care of them."

"Hey…wait…wait a minute!" Wario fought to keep his head above the sea of minions. "You can't do this. We're on the same side!"

"Well, yes and no," admitted Dedede. "More no than yes. See you later." Dedede started up the hovercraft and steered it down the path away from Wario with his Waddle Dees in pursuit on foot.

Wario, with several Waddle Dee footprints on his back, stomach and face, dragged himself up and shouted at the retreating form of King Dedede. "Get back here with my hovercraft. You're not on my insurance!"

* * *

Swarms of Goombas and Koopa Troopas crept and crawled along the bottom of the ravine and the shores of the river flowing through it. Less than an hour ago, Diddy Kong and Fox had been trapped on the cliff edge high above them by their illustrious leader, the great and powerful King Bowser, and instead of surrendering, the heroes had chosen to jump off the cliff to their doom. Now, Bowser's army was tasked with making sure the heroes had indeed died. They were checking under every rock and behind every bush for any trace of Diddy or Fox.

The big turtle himself stomped over to a group of green-shelled Troopas standing directly under where the heroes had jumped from. "Find anything?" Bowser growled.

The lead Troopa shook his yellow head. "Nothing here, Sir."

Bowser looked up to a pair of red-shelled, winged Paratroopas, slowly flapping back and forth across the span of the chasm. "See anything?" he called up.

One of the Paratroopas saluted and replied, "No sign of them, Sir."

Bowser grunted acknowledgement as he noticed two Goombas waddling back from their search of the downstream area. "Well, what about you two? Have you found them?"

"Great Bowser, we regret to bequeath to you the verity that the suicidal actions of our vulpine and primate quarries have rendered them undetectable."

The Koopa King stood for a moment, staring at his minion. "Huh?"

The two Goombas shared a look before the second one said, "We couldn't find the fox or the monkey."

"Well, why didn't you just say so!" roared Bowser in frustration. "This is a waste of time. Either they drowned and the river carried them away or they fell on the rocks and splatted themselves out of existence."

"Actually, Sir," the first Goomba said arrogantly, "That theory is incorrect. Even if our foes had collided with the sedimentary rock, they would have left a residue that we would be able to perceive."

Bowser leaned close to the Goomba and put on his best intimidating face. "How would you like me to fling you off the cliff and see if you leave any residue?"

The Goomba, who was now shaking with fear, replied in a much less steady voice. "N-no need, Your Eminence, the v-velocity at which the fox and m-monkey were travelling must indeed have disintegrated their molecules, thus removing themselves from this physical plain."

Leaning over to the second Goomba, Bowser asked in a low tone, "Does that me he's agreeing with me?"

"Yes, Sir," said the Goomba, both of them nodding their heads rapidly.

"Sir?" A Troopa walked up to Bowser with a large walkie-talkie in his hand. "There's a call for you from headquarters."

"Oh, goodie," Bowser grumbled as he grabbed the radio from his underling. "What?"

"Have you found them?" asked a smooth, but menacing voice.

"Of course not," spat Bowser. "I told you, they're gone. There's no trace of them. They won't be bothering us again."

"I hope so, for your sake." Bowser rolled his eyes, completely unimpressed with the threat. "I'm picking up a signal not far from you. Go and retrieve it."

"Fine," said Bowser, thrusting the walkie-talkie back at the Troopa so hard he fell back onto his shell. "Who does he think he is, ordering me? ME! King Koopa!"

Bowser grumbled and ranted for a few more minutes before quitting the search, gathering up his troops and heading downstream. As the Troopas retreated, a pair of green eyes watched them from behind a rock in the water. Once the last shell was out of sight, Fox stood up in the waist deep water and took the oxygen mask off of his mouth. The pocket-sized devise was originally intended for emergency deep-space use, but in a pinch it could be used to hide underwater.

"Okay, Diddy, it looks like we're safe for now." Fox looked over his shoulder, but did not see his friend rise to the surface. "Diddy? Diddy?" Fox plunged an arm into the river and felt around until he felt something furry. With a sharp yank, he fished Diddy Kong out by his tail.

"What are you trying to do, kill me?" sputtered Diddy as he couched up water. "You come back to save me from Bowser and then you force me over a cliff!"

"There were too many Troopas to fight," Fox explained calmly. "All we could do was escape."

"Why didn't you do that thing where you burst into flame and charbroil them all?"

"My Fire Fox move? That takes a lot of energy. I can't use it again right away."

"Well, that doesn't explain why you tried to drown me!"

Fox was truly confused. "Didn't you use the oxygen mask I gave you?"

Diddy angrily pointed to the devise which was sitting snuggly on top of his head like a hat. "Yeah, and it didn't work at all."

Fox just shook his head and tried to keep himself from laughing. He took both masks and stored them in his belt. "We better get going."

"Right. They're getting away." Diddy leapt out of the river and started to go after Bowser, but didn't get far before Fox grabbed his tail again causing the young monkey to fall face first on the ground. "Okay, you seriously have to stop doing that."

"We can't go after Bowser and his army right now."

"But they still have DK and…"

"And they still outnumber us by fifty to one," Fox pointed out. "We'll need reinforcements in order to rescue your friend."

By an incredibly convenient coincidence, Fox's scouter device sprang to life, beeping and flashing a radar image on the screen. "Hold on. I think I've got something here."

"What is it?" Diddy asked eagerly.

"Some very good news," Fox said excitedly. "My team finally made their way here."

"More space fighters? That's awesome!" Diddy pumped his fist into the air. "With their help, we will totally rescue Donkey Kong in no time!"

"And save your world from that giant warship," added Fox.

"Oh, yeah, sure, that too," said Diddy, waving his hand in dismissal. "So where is your team, anyway?"

Fox pushed a few buttons on his scouter. "It looks like their pretty far away. The signal is weak; I can't get a definite fix, but they are in that direction," he said, pointing upstream.

"What are we waiting for?" Without another word, Diddy scampered off at lightning speed.

"Hey, wait up!" shouted Fox. "Man, where does he get all that energy?"

* * *

Something was off.

He couldn't explain exactly what it was, but something was definitely not right. A sense of unease had settled over him as soon as he had begun his latest journey and had refused to leave him. Of course, there was much about the Lost Woods that would give anyone that kind of feeling. The tree canopy was so thick that only a sparse few beam of sunlight could penetrate to the forest floor. There was no real path, so it was all too easy to lose your way. Fairies – little balls of light and gossamer wings – flitted in and out of the branches, never coming into plain sight, enticing unwitting travelers with their child-like voices and songs. Other, much less benign magical creatures lurked in the shadows, waiting for you to drop your guard.

Hardly anyone lived near the Lost Woods, much less ventured in. He was one of the special few who could enter without fear. He knew the secret routes well and there was nothing in the Woods too strong for him to overcome. But despite all his courage and skill, that nagging feeling, that ominous sense that something was wrong with the world persisted.

The hero moved cautiously, his green tunic blending into his surroundings perfectly. Blue eyes scanned his surroundings and pointed ears strained to pick up the faintest sounds. It might have been his imagination, but the shadows appeared longer and darker than usual. The fairies, who were usually so friendly with him, had not come out to greet him. And he hadn't run into a single monster so far. That was never a good sign.

Finally, he came to the only true clearing in the forest. The sunlight reflected off the metal shield he held in one hand. A quiver of arrows was strapped to his back. A green stocking cap sat lightly upon a head of long blond hair.

**LINK**

The hero of Hyrule hesitated before fully entering the circle of sunlight in the clearing. This was practically a holy place and even though he'd visited here before, Link always felt a twinge of doubt he'd be found unworthy to do so again. A serine quiet and stillness lay over this clearing like a blanket creating an essence of safety that no monster would dare to invade. With a quick bow of his head, as if giving thanks for being allowed to enter this safe haven, Link raised his eyes and gazed upon his goal.

The Master Sword, traditional weapon of the hero of Hyrule for generation, stood resting in a stone altar in the center of the clearing. The golden sunlight set the ancient sword's silver blade ablaze. The image of the triforce – three triangles stacked in a pyramid – was etched in the flat of the blade near the hilt.

Confidently, Link walked up to the sword and wrapped one gloved hand around the handle. The screech of metal on stone – the only noise allowed to permeate the glade – filled the air as Link effortlessly pulled the sword from its resting place. As soon as it was free, the metal of the sword grew warm, and then hot, almost too hot to touch, but Link refused to let go. That heat flowed into the hero's body, filling him, empowering him, becoming one with him. Link let a small grin grace his lips; he never quite felt complete unless he had the Master Sword in hand.

The smile was quick to vanish as Link remembered the reason he was seeking out the Master Sword in the first place. Rumors had begun to spread throughout Hyrule of a new darkness descending upon the land. More than one story about creatures popping out of the shadows and attacking entire villages had reached his ears. Link's old enemy, Ganondorf was, of course, the obvious prime suspect, but somehow, Link didn't think so. The villain of Hyrule did usually have minions to do his dirty work for him, but whereas Ganondorf would have a definite goal in mind, the reported attacks seemed to be totally random.

Gazing down at the sword in his hand, Link muttered, "With all the evil running around in this world, I don't know why ever I bother to put to you back."

The Master Sword slid smoothly into the leather scabbard on Link's back. Having secured his prize, the Hyrulian hero stepped out of the sunlit clearing back into the murky Lost Woods. As soon as he made the transition, that foreboding feeling came back twice as strong. An involuntary shiver ran along Link's spine.

_Whatever it is_, though Link, _it's getting closer._ He picked up his pace, anxious to leave the Woods.

Not too far from the Master Sword's clearing was a stump from a tree that had fallen over years ago. On that stump was a small green dinosaur with a white stomach and line of red scales going down his neck. A small red hump sat on his back, much like a saddle and a pair of brown boots were his only clothing.

**YOSHI**

The human-sized dinosaur sprawled itself out on the stump, snoozing contently without a care in the world. As Link marched by, he barely spared a glance at the creature; just motioned with one arm and said, "Wake up, Yoshi. Time to go."

Yoshi stirred slowly, reluctant to return to the waking world and leave the comfortable spot he'd found. His black eyes fluttered open to see Link striding purposefully out of the forest. The dinosaur's jaws opened wide in a great yawn that almost sounded like a roar. Oh, well. Yoshi supposed he'd better get moving before Link got too far ahead. Despite being a bit lazy, the dinosaur was actually quite fast and caught up to Link in no time.

Falling into an easy gait, Yoshi glanced at Link out of the corner of his half-closed eyes and noted the sword now strapped to his friend's back.

"Link got sword," he said simply in a light-hearted tone.

Link merely nodded, to preoccupied to talk much.

"Good. Now maybe Link not be so tense," said Yoshi as he gave another big yawn. He knew Link had been worried about the rumors of dark creatures in Hyrule, but honestly, Yoshi didn't see the point of getting worked up over it. It's not that he didn't care. He just didn't see anything to worry about. Link was a hero and heroes defeated evil. That's what they did. Everything would work out for the best.

Link glanced down, smiling at his friend. Yoshi was so laid back about everything. It took quite a lot to get the little dinosaur's dander up.

The two of them were something of an odd couple, but you couldn't ask for a more loyal companion than Yoshi. The hero had met the little dinosaur during his adventures on Koholint Island, far out at sea. Yoshi had helped him to conquer the dungeons of that area, wake the guardian of the island – a creature known as the Wind Fish – and restore peace to the land. When Link had been ready to leave, Yoshi asked to accompany Link, confessing that he'd grown quite fond of the hero. Yoshi also said that he was curious to see what lay beyond Koholint Island. Link chuckled to himself; Yoshi spent so much time asleep it was a wonder he saw anything at all.

Yoshi gave Link a suspicious look. "What Link laughing at?"

Link had just opened his mouth to answer when the scant sunlight within the Lost Woods abruptly disappeared, like a candle being snuffed out. Link's entire body went rigid as a shadow flooded the forest floor. He instinctively reached for the hilt of the Master Sword as he swung his metal shield onto his other arm. Blues eyes squinted as the Hero of Hyrule tried to pierce the dark depths, searching for the oncoming threat.

Yoshi looked around at the sudden darkness with only mild curiosity, seemingly oblivious to his friend's anxiety. "It not supposed to rain today."

A great whirring noise and the sound of rushing air drew Link's vision up to the sky. He gasped in shock. A flying ship – as big as Hyrule Castle – floated just over the canopy of trees, belching a smoke that turned the sky red and covered the ground in darkness. A door on the bottom of the ship slid open and Shadow Bugs spilled out upon the ground.

"Looks like those rumors were true," muttered Link.

The Shadow Bugs nearest to Link quickly formed into three piles which then grew into three red-eyed Primids right before the hero's eyes. The dark creatures leapt at Link, swinging their fists, but a single swing from the Master Sword was enough to take the lot of them down.

The danger was far from over, though. More Primids were forming and these were carrying swords with glowing blue blades. Link knew from their slow and clumsy movements that these enemies did not have the swordsman skills he did. Alone they would have no chance against him, but he and Yoshi were quickly being surrounded by vast numbers. All it would take was one errant blade to slip through his defense.

"I hope you're well rested, Yoshi," said Link as he blocked a blow from the nearest Primid and ran it through with his sword. "I'll need your help if we're going to defeat these things."

Yoshi kicked a Primid in the chest, sending it flying back into its companions. "Oh, all right. Then maybe I can get back to my nap."

* * *

The land and sky tumbled end over end in front of Zelda's eyes, but she could barely see it through her brunette locks which kept slapping her in the face. The folds of her dress were flapping in the raging wind so violently it almost sounded like the fabric was being ripped apart. Zelda couldn't make any sense out of her current situation until the warship flashed into her line of sight.

Of course. The attempt to find Peach, the smaller ship, the explosion; it was all coming back to her.

Throwing her arms and legs out in a spread eagle fashion, Zelda managed to balance herself out in mid-air so at least she wasn't spinning around anymore. Although the perfect view she had of the ground rushing up to meet her was hardly an improvement. _Can't focus on that_, she thought, willing herself to stay calm. _Have to find a way out of this mess._

The Princess of Hyrule quickly took stock of her very limited options. The only spell in her arsenal that could possible help now was her teleportation spell, but that was a bad idea. Zelda could teleport herself closer to the ground, no problem, but she'd still be travelling at the same speed and direction after she teleported. She'd just hit the ground a lot sooner.

A look over her shoulder at the warship told her that it was much too far away for one of Sheik's grappling chains. There was something else above her too: a small pink blob cartwheeling through the atmosphere – Kirby! The Dream Land hero cut through the air like a ninja star and quickly caught up to the falling princess. Kirby pressed himself against her back and gripped Zelda's forearms with his own stubby arms.

"Kirby, what are you doing?" cried Zelda over the roar of the wind. The pink puffball ignored her and began sucking in air, inflating himself to many times his normal size. Alone this would have allowed Kirby to float gently upwards, but with a passenger it was barely enough to slow them down.

"Stop, Kirby, this isn't working," shouted Zelda. When the pink hero kept trying, she screamed louder. "Kirby, it's no use. Forget me, save yourself."

Kirby's eyes narrowed at Zelda, looking offended that she'd think he'd even consider that. Still, she was right; he was not going to be able to stop her fall this way. He let go of Zelda's arms and the princess, thinking that Kirby was at last heading her request, smiled at him sadly as a way of saying goodbye. The smile turned to shock when she saw Kirby turn into a massive stone block and plummet down to the ground.

When Kirby hit, it sounded like a bomb went off and a mushroom cloud of dust rose high into the air. The little warrior lay at the bottom of the deep crater he'd created before groggily standing up. He shook his head to clear it as he gazed up at his companion who was still falling fast. Once again he inhaled, sucking in huge amounts of air, more than he ever had before. Kirby was ballooning himself up far past his normal limits. His body shook with the strain of that plus the effort not to go flying up but to stay close to the ground.

A few seconds later, Zelda came crashing down right on Kirby's inflated body, which acted like a giant cushion, allowing the princess to land safely. The air whistled as it blew out of Kirby's mouth in one long breath, deflating him back to normal in record time.

Zelda's legs barely held her as she stumbled over to her savior. "Kirby?" she said to the prone form of her friend lying on the ground. Kirby rolled over, totally exhausted, but happy that his teammate seemed to be okay. "Thank you for saving me."

Kirby could do little more than give a small squeak in response before falling unconscious. A look of concern graced the princess' face before she too succumbed to the stress of a near death experience and slumped to the ground beside Kirby.

* * *

The next thing Zelda knew, someone was shaking her rather urgently. She cracked open her eyes to see Kirby looking down on her with concern.

"Do not worry, Kirby," Zelda said soothingly as she slowly stood up. "I am all right."

Kirby jumped up and down, squeaking happily. He gestured for Zelda to follow him as he scaled the side of the crater. Soon the two teammates were standing on a grassy landscape beside a lake of deep blue. Snowcapped mountains lined the distant horizon. There wasn't another person in sight.

Zelda shielded her eyes as she scanned the cloudy sky. The warship had disappeared and she noticed that the sun had moved quite a distance along its daily arc. They must have been knocked out in that crater for hours. There was almost no hope of trying to find the warship now. So, what would be next? Zelda supposed they could try to find that second, smaller ship. It had fired upon the larger one so maybe it was friendly. Maybe. It could have just as easily been a collaborator of the warship; it had shot at them after all.

"Kirby, I think we will need more allies to fight this evil," Zelda pondered. Her thoughts turned to her hero and close friend, Link. "Perhaps we should…"

A distressed squeak brought Zelda's attention to her partner who was looking off into the distance and jumping around, looking very agitated. Obviously he saw something, but before she could ask what it was, the pink puffball sped off like a rocket and was soon out of sight.

"Kirby, come back!" Zelda called, but only the trail of dust left in Kirby's wake heard her. "He can move very fast for someone with just feet and no legs." Zelda sighed tiredly. "It appears I'll have to hurry or be left behind."

"Oh, don't worry, Your Highness," said a dark voice behind Zelda, "You don't have to move a muscle."

Hyrule's princess spun around and got a split second view of Bowser firing his Dark Cannon at her. Zelda instinctively raised her arms, but the feeble defense did no good. The black, arrow-shaped laser shot right through her, capturing her in Trophy form.

"Besides," said Bowser as if Zelda could still hear him, "A princess shouldn't be running around out here in the first place. It's _dangerous_." That last sentence was said with a malicious grin. The Koopa King picked up his prize and was about to leave when he spied two of his Paratroopa scouts come at him from opposite directions.

"Your Koopaness," shouted one of the Paratroopas, "Mario is converging on this location."

"Your Evil Eminence," cried the other Paratroopa, his voice almost overlapping the first one, "The hero, Link, is approaching out position."

The word that most stuck out to Bowser from the two jumbled reports was _Mario_. That name alone was enough to send the turtle tyrant into an unbelievable rage, cursing the plumber hero, his brother, his ancestors and the guy who invented plumbing in the first place. That little punk always managed to stick his Italian nose into Bowser's business. And even worse, Link was on his way. Bowser had never faced off against the Hyrulian hero before, but the Koopa King felt it was his duty as a villain to hate Link on principle.

"Sir, perhaps we should retreat," the first Paratroopa suggested. "Mario and Link will cross paths in moments and they will surely team up against us. Especially once Link discovers we have captured Princess Zelda."

It was then, as these words sunk in, that Bowser's mean streak and his desire to have others do his work for him combined to grant him a rare moment of true genius.

Bowser got an idea.

An awful idea.

Bowser got a wonderful, awful idea.

"This is a perfect opportunity." The sharp tips of his claws clacked together as Bowser rubbed his hands in wicked glee.

"Uh, an opportunity for what, Sir?" the second Paratroopa asked timidly. Seeing his master happy like this was never good.

The evil king didn't bother to explain his plan. He simply tossed the Trophy of Zelda onto the ground and took a few steps back, motioning for his minions to do the same. Bowser snapped his claws and a pile of Shadow Bugs immediately appeared at his side.

"Okay, boys, do that Xerox thing again," Bowser said, pointing at Zelda's Trophy. The Bugs circled around Zelda, like piranha with a piece of meat, before swarming over the Trophy, completely obscuring it. After a few seconds, the Shadow Bugs pulled off the Trophy and congealed together to form, not a Primid, but a second Zelda. Like the Shadow Bowser Diddy Kong and Fox had fought, this Zelda had a dark, smoky aura surrounding her. The color of her skin and clothes were dull, as if covered with ash. Instead of bright blue eyes, soulless yellow ones looked out at Bowser, awaiting his command.

Bowser held out his Dark Cannon towards Shadow Zelda. The gun was almost larger than she was, but the dark copy lifted it with apparent ease. "Go and attack Link," ordered Bowser. "Bring me back his Trophified form."

Shadow Zelda nodded once in understanding and quickly set off on her mission.

* * *

Yoshi burst out of the Lost Woods with Link right on his heels. Two Primids followed them out, but The Master Sword quickly cut them down. More of the shadow creatures emerged, slashing their glowing swords recklessly, leaving deep gouges in the trees. Link unleashed his Gale Boomerang. As soon as the boomerang left his fingers, it kicked up a small tornado that blew the Primids back into the woods. Link had to use his windy weapon twice more before the Primids stopped coming and all was silent.

"Well, that all excitement I can stand for today," said Yoshi, panting slightly. Fortunately, neither of the two friends had been hurt from their brief, but intense fight.

"I'm afraid we're not done yet. Look." Link pointed with his sword towards the sky. Off in the distance he could see the black shape of the warship heading away from them.

Yoshi just shrugged at the retreating threat. "So it leaving. Isn't that good thing?"

"No," replied Link with hardness in his eyes. "That flying ship has been causing havoc all over Hyrule. It may be leaving now, but it could come back. Do you know what that means?"

"I not get to finish nap?"

Link nodded at his friend. "We have to stop that thing."

Yoshi sighed in defeat. "Then Link better climb on." The small dinosaur grunted as Link pulled himself onto Yoshi's back, arms wrapping around his scaly neck for stability.

"Let's go!" shouted Link and Yoshi zoomed off towards the warship.

* * *

"See anything up there!" Mario shouted to the feathered friend hovering high above him.

Pit spun in a slow circle, bobbing up and down slightly as his wings beat a steady rhythm. His eyes were squinting hard, not to try and block out the sun, but to utilize every ounce of his superior angel vision. Despite that, all Pit saw was more grass, more mountains, and more of the same endless dirt path they'd been following all day.

"No, I don't see…wait a second." Pit stared hard; there was a dark person-sized shape off in the distance. "There's something, or someone, up ahead of us. They're making their way to the forest."

"Can you tell who it is? Is it a Primid?"

"I can't tell from here. We'll have to get closer."

"Then as we plumbers say, get the clog out of your pipes and let's move."

* * *

Zelda's dark twin gazed down from her vantage point on a small hill at the two green-clad heroes making their way past her. Her yellow eyes held no emotion; neither companionship for the allies she was helping nor hatred for the heroes she would vanquish. And when her task was complete, she would feel no joy. The only thing beating in her heart was the power and will of her master, the one true lord of this and all worlds. The Shadow Bugs that made up Dark Zelda were mere cogs and content to be so, if they had possessed the ability.

With no thought but to obey, Dark Zelda steadied the Dark Cannon in her hands and took aim at Link and Yoshi. Red lights blinked and glowed along the sides of the rifle as it charged its power, but before the shot was fired a ball of orange flame struck Dark Zelda on her side. The Dark Cannon fell to the ground and tumbled down the hill out of sight.

The Subspace creature turned and saw Mario standing behind her, a few tendrils of flame still clinging to his fingers. He looked at Dark Zelda with a mix of confusion and worry.

"Princess Zelda? What are you doing? That's Link down there and you were going to attack him."

The royal look-a-like said nothing, unmoved by the plumber hero's demand for answers. She stood still, unafraid, even as a second hero landed lightly on the hillside.

"That is not the Princess of Hyrule," Pit hissed in anger. His hands tightened around his bow. "It's a creature composed of the darkness of Subspace."

"Like the Primids?"

"Exactly."

"In that case," said Mario, cracking his knuckles, "I've been waiting to do this." The plumber hero leapt into the air and drew back his fist.

Dark Zelda did not attempt to fight back or defend herself. She had received no orders to do so. She only stood there, impassive, as Mario slammed her with one, two, three of his hardest punches. The fake princess fell heavily to the ground, her shadowy aura flickering weakly. Mario stood over her with a grim smile.

"This is for Peach." A ball of fire flew from his hand and engulfed Dark Zelda. When the fire burned itself out, all that was left was a Zelda Trophy which splintered into Shadow Bugs and dissolved into nothingness.

"Ah," sighed Mario, a real smile on his face now. "That was cleansing."

"YAAAAHHHH!" The power unleashed in that battle cry made the air vibrate and caused both Mario and Pit to flinch as if they'd been struck. The heroes looked up and were blinded by the sunlight reflecting off a very sharp piece of metal being held by a very angry looking Hyrulian hero.

* * *

Link and Yoshi had just started their journey to find the warship, unaware of the much closer danger that was targeting them. They did, however, hear the sudden roar of flame and the sharp clacks of metal on stone.

"What was that?" asked Yoshi, swinging his head back and forth.

Link, expecting an attack, leapt off of Yoshi's back and drew the Master Sword in one fluid movement. All he saw was Zelda standing on a nearby hill. Link was a little perplexed; Zelda had gone to the Brawl Stadium earlier today to preside over the tournament. A small part of him was still upset at his last disappointing performance at the stadium, but he quickly squashed those memories. If the contest was over, Zelda should have gone back to Hyrule castle. What was she doing out here? Looking for him? Confusion turned to shock and then anger as he saw Mario start punching Zelda.

Link just stood there, stunned, unable to make sense of the situation. He had known Mario for years and even though there was a fierce rivalry between them, Link had never known Mario to spontaneously attack innocent people, especially royalty. Now he was and he seemed to be enjoying it.

"Say, isn't that Link's girlfriend?" said Yoshi in a bored voice. He was likewise shocked at the red-clad hero's behavior, he just didn't show it.

The sound of Yoshi's voice snapped Link into action. He charged up the hill, sword first, never taking his eyes off of Mario. Thus he saw when the plumber shot a ball of fire at the ground. Link's brain seized up. He missed a step and almost tumbled down the hillside. The world seemed to stop as a million visions of Zelda's death at Mario's hands flashed before his eyes. Some kind of primal instinct took over Link. Redoubling his speed, he leapt up to the top of the hill, his sword bearing down on the source of his hatred.

"YAAAAHHHH!"

Mario just managed to hop out of the way in time before Link came crashing down, burying the Master Sword almost up to the hilt into the dirt right where Mario had been standing.

"Link!" cried the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. "What in the name of Grandma Mario's secret pasta sauce recipe has gotten into you?"

With one great heave, Link pulled his sword out of the ground, specks of dirt flying everywhere, and pointed the blade right at Mario's chest. "Why did you attack Princess Zelda?" His voice simmered with barely suppressed rage.

"Zelda?" Mario was confused until he glanced over at the scorched grass where the Shadow Zelda once stood. "Oh! Oh, wait, you don't understand. I can explain."

"There's no possible way you could explain." Link dashed forward to stab Mario, but the plumber once again just barely avoided the attack. Mario found himself dancing backwards to prevent himself from being skewered from Link's relentless attack.

Meanwhile, Pit could only stare in shock as he watched the two heroes fight. This was nothing like watching combatants duke it out in a tournament. Link was really trying to kill Mario. And all over a misunderstanding.

"Guys, wait!" Pit called to them, but Mario was too busy dodging to respond and Link just flat out ignored him. "There's a perfectly good explanation for this. Specks of darkness from another dimension made an exact duplicate of Princess Zelda who was trying to turn you into a trophy." Pit frowned and rubbed his chin in thought. "Huh. When you say it out loud, it does sound kinda silly, doesn't it?"

A second figure crested the hill and Pit turned to see Yoshi watching the fight in the background as if it was just an interesting show on television. After a minute, the laid back dinosaur shifted his gaze to Pit. "You with Mario?" This wasn't said with any malice or anger; he sounded merely curious.

The angel, not knowing who Yoshi was, responded, "Yes, I am." The next thing Pit knew, he'd been kicked in the face with a booted foot. He staggered back, flapping his wings to balance himself so he didn't fall over. "What was that?"

In that same conversational tone, Yoshi said, "Well, you with Mario and Link fighting him and me with Link so me fight you."

"Wait…what?" But Pit didn't get the time to wrap his head around that before Yoshi came at him with feet flying, successfully hitting the angel twice more: in the chest and on the arm. Clearly at a disadvantage on the ground, Pit took to the air to get some breathing room. "No wonder angels aren't allowed to come down here; everybody here is nuts."

Yoshi jumped up high, eager to get at Pit. The dinosaur had some impressive aerial moves and seemed to almost float in the air. Of course, that was no match for someone who could actually fly. Pit easily avoided Yoshi's headbutt and sent him back down to earth with a roundhouse kick. Taking advantage of the high ground, Pit sent volley after volley of energy arrows at Yoshi who was forced to zip back and forth across the hill to avoid them.

Behind a rocky outcropping, unnoticed by any of the four battling heroes, Bowser and his Paratroopas were excitedly watching the show. "It's amazing how much more entertaining it is to watch heroes fight when you're not the one their fighting against. And, once they've tired themselves out, we'll finish off the survivors and have four more trophies to add to our collection."

Link had not slowed down one bit in his attack on Mario, but he hadn't managed to land a hit either. His anger made his swings wild and reckless which made them easy to dodge or for Mario to parry by striking the flat side of the blade. The Mushroom Kingdom hero was quickly building some anger of his own. At first, he hadn't wanted to attack Link back, figuring that his fellow hero would come to his senses. But as the battle continued, Mario saw that knocking Link out might be the only way out of this situation. Plus, rivalry or not, he was surprise that Link thought him capable of blatantly attacking royalty.

Mario's experienced eye noticed when Link hesitated just a second to catch his breath. That's when he made his move. Suddenly Mario was the one attacking, fists nothing but white blurs and Link was the one trying to defend himself. The difference being that Link had a shield, so he could still use the Master Sword in one hand to keep Mario at bay. Link's anger was giving him stamina while Mario was starting to tire. The Master Sword almost sliced right through the plumber's side, but a just-quick-enough twist of his body and the blade ripped his overalls instead.

Pit saw that the fight was tipping against his friend. "Hang on, Mario, I'm coming." As he moved to dive bomb Link, Pit felt something tug at his ankle. The angel looked down and saw something long and red wrapped around his foot. Pit grimaced when he realized that it was Yoshi's tongue. "Oh, yuck."

The tongue trembled and with great force yanked Pit out of the sky and into Yoshi's mouth. The dinosaur's cheeks bulged as the angel hero squirmed and twisted as he tried to escape, but those surprisingly powerful jaws stayed shut.

It took a couple of tried, but Yoshi did manage to swallow Pit whole. "Huh," he said, smacking his lips, "Tastes like chicken." The little dinosaur tensed his muscles and with practiced effort, laid one gigantic green polka dot egg. As soon as the egg hit the ground, it shook violently and muffled yells could be heard from inside it. "That hold strange bird for awhile." Yoshi looked over to where Mario and his friend were still fighting. "Guess me help Link now."

Holding off Link was bad enough, but adding Yoshi to the mix was almost more than Mario could handle. The dino hero's tongue cracked like a whip as he tried to slurp up the plumber just like did Pit. The plumber's fleet feet were getting fatigued and it was a matter of moments before he fell.

Luckily, Yoshi had underestimated Pit's strength. That eggshell was nowhere near strong enough to hold the young angel for very long. With the sharpened edges of his bow, Pit cracked his prison open, eggshell shards scattering all across the hilltop. The hero took a couple of big gulps of fresh air before saying, "That was definitely weird…and high in cholesterol."

Dull thuds filled the air as Mario's fists met the steel of Link's shield, but the blows were getting weaker and both combatants knew it. When the next punch came, Link pushed with his shield, knocking Mario off balance and into the dirt. Before he could get up, Yoshi stepped forward and raised a boot to stomp down on the plumber.

"Hey, Big Mouth!"

Yoshi, Link and Mario all turned to see Pit standing off to the side, glaring daggers at his former captor. "Nobody traps me in an excellent source of protein and gets away with it."

The dinosaur in question turned to his teammate with an almost bored expression. "Link no worry. Me take care of him." Yoshi shot his tongue out at Pit to entrap the angel once again, but once was more than enough. With lightning quick reflexes, Pit grabbed hold of the tongue a scant inch from his face. Yoshi's eyes opened wide in surprise. "Howth you doth that?"

Pit just gave a wide smile and a swift jerk on Yoshi's tongue and suddenly the dino was the one being reeled in. Yoshi's big round nose met Pit's rock hard fist. Yoshi staggered back, head spinning and vision blurring. Pit didn't intent to give him a chance to recover. With a metallic clack, the angel's bow split into two sharpened blades. With a savage cry, Pit dashed towards Yoshi who was just now regaining his footing, but it was far too late. Pit was already on top of him, delivering a series of slashes so fast you could barely see the blades move. As the final blow was struck, Yoshi succumbed to Trophification and was defeated.

"Yoshi!" If Link was fired up before, his anger burned red hot now at the defeat of his friend. The momentary distraction was enough to let Mario land a double kick to Link's chest, pushing him back several feet. Mario was too tired to press the attack and Link knew it. Reaching into the pouch at his side, Hyrule's hero pulled out a small blue bomb and chucked it at the plumber. Instead of dodging, as Link expected, Mario kicked the bomb straight up into the air; then he leaped, flipped upside down and kicked the bomb right back at Link.

The Hero of Legend was so stunned by Mario's move he was a second too late raising his shield and when the bomb exploded, he caught the full blast. Light and smoke expanded in a wide radius; Mario and Pit covered their eyes and their mouths. When everything was calm again, Link's Trophy lay motionless on the ground.

"Wow," said an awestruck Pit. "That was incredible. Where'd you learn that move?"

"I play a little soccer in my spare time," said Mario in between heavy breaths.

Pit gestured to the Trophies of Link and Yoshi. "What should we do with these two?"

"Give them a couple of minutes to cool down," said Mario. "Then we'll revive them and see if they feel like listening."

"They won't get the chance to revive them," growled Boswer as he stood up from his hiding place. "Let's move." But before he and his Troopas could descend on the tired heroes, there was a whooshing sound, like a high speed wind, and Wario's hovercraft, driven by King Dedede appeared on the hill.

"A present for me," said the evil king. "You shouldn't have." A claw on the back of the hovercraft scooped up both the Yoshi and Link Trophies. That's when Mario noticed three other trophies on the hovercraft and two of them looked very familiar.

"Peach! Luigi!"

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of them," laughed Dedede as he sped down the hillside and onto the dirt path.

Bowser jumped up from the hiding place shouting, "Hey! I was gonna do that!" He ducked back down, though, when Mario and Pit slid down the hill to give chase, but the hovercraft was too fast and they were too tired from the battle.

"So long, boys," Dedede shouted over his shoulder. "Ha ha ha!"

The king's joy was cut short when he noticed Kirby hanging from the hovercraft's claw.

"Eh?"

With a wide smile, Kirby squeaked a greeting, waving enthusiastically at his long-time enemy.

"What the…Get off of there!" King Dedede reached back to grab Kirby, but the pink hero simply swung out of the way. Failing that, the royal villain swerved the hovercraft from side to side in order to throw Kirby off. It was working; Kirby's grip was starting to weaken. Before he let go, Kirby drew his sword and cut clean through the claw holding Link and Yoshi. The two trophies were flung into the air with Kirby who quickly touched their golden bases to awaken the fallen heroes. Link managed to land nimbly on his feet beside Kirby who gently floated down. Yoshi wasn't so graceful, getting a face full of dirt as he dropped onto his stomach.

Dedede growled and made a quick u-turn to get his property back.

Link was in a bit of a daze, his former anger gone and his memories of the previous fight with Mario were little more than remnants of a bad dream. With his mind cleared, he realized that his plumber rival would never have spitefully attacked Zelda like that; at least, not without a good reason.

Link didn't have time to dwell on that with Dedede bearing down on him. One hit from that hovercraft at full speed would render him a trophy once more. Just before the collision, Link deftly rolled to the side, came to a kneeling position, strung his bow and let loose an arrow which hit the hovercraft dead on. The vehicle didn't stop, but it was billowing smoke and Dedede was cursing as he decided to cut his losses and make a run for it.

Once he was sure the hovercraft was not coming back, Link turned to Yoshi to confirm his friend was a little dirty, but okay. Then he addressed Kirby. "Thank you for saving my friend and me."

Kirby squeaked and shrugged his shoulders as if to say that it was no big deal.

All three heroes turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Mario and Pit headed their way. "Link. Yoshi. Are you guys okay?" asked the plumber.

"Yes, we're fine," answered Link solemnly. Though he regretted his earlier actions, some semblance of his anger remained and he needed answers. He struggled to keep his voice calm as he asked, "Mario, why did you attack Zelda?"

Mario tensed for a brief second, but he sensed that Link was not going to fly off the handle again. "That wasn't Princess Zelda."

"It was a copy made from the essence of Subspace," said Pit. "A creature of shadows." As quickly as he could, Pit told Link, Yoshi, and Kirby what the Goddess Palutena had told him about this new enemy.

"Subspace. Is that the entity who controls the Primids?" asked Link.

"You saw the Primids?"

"Yoshi and I fought several of them," Link said. "They came from a giant flying ship."

"Was very loud," threw in Yoshi. "Woke me us. Was dreaming of yummy fruit trees."

"I don't suppose you happened to see which way the ship went?" asked Pit hopefully.

Link shook his head and, with some embarrassment, said, "We lost track of it during our…scuffle."

At this, Kirby jumped up and down, squeaking to get everyone's attention. Pit knelt down on one knee as he listened intently to the excited puffball. "Kirby says that he and the real Princess Zelda were on the warship trying to find Princess Peach, but they were blasted off."

"Do you know where Zelda is now?" asked Link, his eyes burning with intensity.

Kirby hung his head and gave two pathetic squeaks in answer.

"No, he doesn't," translated Pit. "When he saw King Dedede, Kirby chased after him. He thought Zelda was right behind him, but realized too late that he'd lost her."

"Pit get all that from squeaks?" asked Yoshi.

"It's all in the pronunciation," Pit replied.

"Wait a second, though," said Mario. "Pit, you told me that Wario had captured Peach." Pit nodded in confirmation. "If that's true, then what was King Dedede doing with her trophy."

"The obvious answer is that this Wario and Dedede are working together," stated Link. "And they in turn are working with whoever is behind Subspace."

"Link think maybe there are other villains with them too?" asked Yoshi

"We won't know until they show themselves," answered Pit. "All we know for sure is that King Dedede has three trophies."

"Including Peach and my brother," added Mario.

"If Princess Zelda has been captured, she'll probably be where Dedede is taking the others," mused Pit.

Kirby squeaked and pointed off in the direction Dedede had gone.

"Kirby's right," said Mario. "What are we waiting for? Let's get going."

"Wait!" Link strode purposefully up to Mario. It took quite a bit of willpower, but he was able to swallow enough of his pride to say, "I want to apologize for attacking you earlier. I should not have assumed the worst of a fellow hero."

"Hey, forget about it. I probably would have done the same thing if it was you and Peach." Although he was tempted, Mario refrained from mentioning that it was he that won the fight. "Now, if we've got that sappy moment out of the way, we've got a world to save!"

All four of his companions nodded in agreement and the newly formed team raced down the path in pursuit of King Dedede.

* * *

_I hope you all liked it. I was worried that I made Link come across as too much of a jerk towards Mario during the battle scene, but let's face it, anyone would act that way if their true love was attacked. Coming up next, Lucas helps the Pokemon Trainer, Ash, increase his arsenal. Also, we'll probably look in on Samus and Pikachu and see how they are doing. Plus, my "mystery" character from Chapter 4 makes another appearance. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. Thank you for reading._


	8. Chapter 8

_Hello again. GhostWriter267 here with another chapter in Subspace Redux. A big thank you to everyone who read my previous chapter and to all those currently following my story. When last we left it, Mario and Pit had joined up with Link, Yoshi and Kirby to chase after King Dedede who had the Trophies of Luigi, Ness and Peach. We found out that Fox and Diddy had survived their jump off the cliff and Bowser had captured Princess Zelda. In this chapter, we'll follow Ash and Lucas' leg of the journey and see how a few other characters are doing. Without further ado, here is Chapter 8._

_I don't own Smash Bros or the characters and I'm guessing that you probably don't either._

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Gotta Catch 'Em All**

_SECURE CHANNEL OPENED. BEGINNING TRANSMISSION._

"Colonel? Come in, Colonel, are you there?"

"_I read you. What's your status?"_

"I've infiltrated the enemy aircraft and am currently hiding in the cargo hold. Has Mei Ling been able to dig up any more info on who our guests are?"

"_Negative. Our best intel has come up with nothing and Dr. Otacon is still trying to analyze those strange energy signatures. The only advice I can give you is to make sure you're not detected."_

"Gee, why didn't I think of that? Shouldn't be a problem; I haven't seen anyone else on board. To be honest, I'm startin' to get a little lonely."

"_Don't worry, you'll have company soon enough. Several of the warriors we've been tracking are converging on your position."_

"Phhft. I don't need a bunch of rookie show-boats muscling their way in here and blowing this whole operation. I can handle it myself. Someone's gotta be steering this tub, right? I flush him out and take him down, quick and easy."

"_Not so fast. The weapons and radar shielding on that ship is like nothing our tech boy's have ever seen. That makes me think we're dealing with something not of this world."_

"Are you tellin' me we're being invaded by men from Mars?"

"_Don't sound so skeptical. Stranger things have happened. If we are facing an alien threat, it might be too much for you to handle. For now, maintain your position and don't do anything until help arrives."_

"Fine, but if I'da known I'd be waiting up here all day, I'd have brought a magazine."

* * *

At a different location, someone else was also gathering information, albeit for a much more sinister purpose. Within a small room – its existence long since forgotten by the general populous – dozens of television and computer monitors flickered, the blue glow of their screens the only source of light illuminating the metal sides of the room. Each monitor showed a different picture. One showed the former location of the Brawl Stadium, a ball of dark energy pulsing in midair. Another revealed a panoramic view of the Lost Woods. A ruined zoo, some ancient ruins, the wild jungle, a rocky canyon; all areas were being watched. The largest monitor was set within the wall on the far side of the room. It showed a bird's eye view of the entire continent. Several places on the map were marked with large black circles which formed a jagged line leading directly to a red blip that moved steadily across the screen.

The only entrance to the room, a thick metal door, slid open silently on hydraulic hinges revealing a dark silhouette standing in the doorway. Boots clanked sharply against the floor as the figure stepped inside. The soft glow of the monitors illuminated the sharp curves and dull luster of metal armor: greaves on his legs, gauntlets on his wrists, a thick belt around his waist and plate mail over a well muscled chest. The figure stood tall and proud, his bright orange hair almost brushing the ceiling. His ash-colored skin seemed as if sunlight had never bothered to touch it.

**GANONDORF**

The door slid closed again with a faint hiss, effectively sealing off the room from the outside world. This created a slight breeze that stirred the deep purple cape around Ganondorf's neck, but other than that, he took no notice and strode purposefully towards the main monitor.

Coming from a land where the sword ruled and magic was commonplace, the discovery of all these wonderful machines had been something of a shock. Ganondorf would rather die than admit to anyone, including himself, but he had felt decidedly out of place at first. But the King of All Evil was nothing if not a quick study, able to turn any situation to his advantage. And after all, what was technology but just another form of magic for him to master.

A pale finger reached out and touched the continental map at a spot not far behind the still moving red blip. The map zoomed in and Ganondorf was now looking at Bowser and his minions standing around idle on a grassy knoll. The Koopa King appeared to be shouting at several of his so-called warriors. The Troopas shook with obvious fear as Bowser puffed himself up, swung his claws and ground his teeth.

The Hyrulian villain allowed himself a small grin at the entertainment. Bowser may be an inept leader, but at least he was able to instill respect in his followers, if in a brutish and unrefined way.

Pressing a button on the panel, Ganondorf activated the intercom. Without bothering to wait for an answer, he said in a cold, silky voice, "Get me Bowser."

Not five seconds later, a green-shelled Troopa waddled hesitantly up to his king, holding a radio. Ganondorf saw Bowser grab the communication devise. His gruff voice crackled out of the speakers. "What do you want now?"

"The same thing I've wanted all day," replied Ganondorf calmly. "For you to do your job."

"Hey, I got Zelda, didn't I? And I was gonna have four more ready to go."

"Yes," mused Ganondorf. "I have to say I was mildly impressed with your plan to have the heroes take each other out. That was a level of intelligence I had never expected from you, Bowser."

"Thank you," said the Koopa King, totally missing the insult. "And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that meddling penguin. He came in here and just stole my catch."

"Right out from under your nose," agreed the Evil King. "And then Link and Yoshi were revived and allowed to escape. Quite the bout of carelessness on your part." Ganondorf felt a surge of anger at that, but kept it under control. He had been so looking forward to having his long-time enemy at his mercy, but a fit of rage would accomplish nothing. Besides, he did still have Zelda.

"Yeah, well...," Bowser grumbled. "At least we still got Luigi and that Ness kid. And Princess Peach. I bet she'll be the shining jewel of our collection. Oh, and Mario; he'll come bounding to the rescue for sure. We can take him out then."

"We might be able to...if we had Peach in our possession."

"Say what now?"

"It seems that our ally, King Dedede, did not go to the rendezvous point." A radar map appeared on the screen next to the image of Bowser. A small red blip pulsed not too far north of Bowser, but several miles away from another marked area where the King of Dream Land was supposed to go. "I believe he's taken all three Trophies for his own use."

"What use?" roared Bowser.

"I don't know, nor do I care," stated Ganondorf in a detached voice. "Dedede has betrayed us. Go and retrieve the Trophies. I'll have the warship meet you there for pick up. Oh, and do try to capture Link and the others again, if you can. No doubt they are also headed towards Dedede."

"I'm on it," growled Bowser and immediately lead his Troopas away. "Once the heroes are gone, nothing will stop us from taking over the world."

Ganondorf severed the connection, his grin returned in full force. "You're half right, you fool." Once all the heroes had been dealt with, there would be no opposition. All the power, all the riches, all the world would be his.

* * *

The Ancient Ruins outside of Onett managed to be both breathtaking and imposing at the same time. It lay completely within a single mountain peak that looked as if it had been placed among the surrounding tree groves and bedrock plains as an afterthought. The Ruins drew its share of scientific and archeological expeditions trying to discover who had originally built the Ruins and what treasures might be in there. If they ever discovered anything, though, it had not been revealed to the public. The people of Onett, not particularly curious by nature, were willing to let it go and leave the Ruins be. The children, however, would all tell stories of monsters and beasts living deep within the Ruins, ready to gobble up anyone foolish enough to go in.

Those stories kept replaying in Lucas' mind as he gazed down at the mountain side. He and Ash stood upon a rocky cliff that offered a sweeping view of the area for miles around. While Lucas stayed as far away from the edge of the cliff as possible, Ash inched ever closer until the toes of his sneakers hung out into thin air.

"Ash, be careful!" hissed Lucas. He kept his voice low, afraid of startling his friend and causing him to tumble over the edge.

The Pokémon Trainer looked back over his shoulder with a slightly confused look. "Don't you want to get as close a look as possible? You can't see much from back there."

Lucas took another step away from the ledge before saying, "I can see everything I want to right here. I don't want to get too close to that place."

Ash rolled his eyes and turned back to the panorama. "Well, you'd better get over that since that's where we're heading."

A low moan escaped Lucas' throat. "A-are you sure this is where the dragon is supposed to be? Maybe you heard wrong."

A fearsome and powerful roar sounded over the land. Lucas yelped and fell onto his backside, his arms flailing at imaginary attackers. Ash carefully stepped back from the ledge and scanned the skies for the source of the sound. He spotted it circling around the peak of the mountain. A winged creature of some kind; it was too small to tell exactly what it was. After flying twice around the peak and letting loose another mighty roar, the creature landed on the mountainside, disappearing among the rocks.

"What was that?" exclaimed Lucas.

Ash helped the young psychic to his feet. "That's proof that this is the right place."

"That was the Pokémon we're searching for?" Secretly, Lucas had hoped the Pokémon would be something small and cuddly, like Squirtle, and that the dragon story was pure fiction. Lucas was beginning to regret ever joining up with Ash. "That thing was terrifying! Can't we look for a different Pokémon?"

"A Pokémon trainer never runs from a challenge. Come on, let's hurry before it gets away!" said Ash as he started climbing down the cliff.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that," muttered Lucas.

It took them a while and Ash had to stop Lucas from losing his balance several times, but eventually they made it to the bottom of the cliff and the entrance to the Ancient Ruins - a square arch cut into the mountain side. The area immediately in front of the entrance was paved with stone bricks with two rows of carved stone columns rising high overhead.

"Here we are," said Ash with excitement in his voice.

"Yeah, here we are," said Lucas with a tremble in his.

Ash peered down at his friend. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to, Lucas."

The young psychic tried not to faint from relief. "Really? I mean, if you're sure you won't need me in there..."

"No worries. I'll go in, get the Pokémon and come right back out in no time."

"I guess I'll just wait out here then." Lucas settled himself against one of the stone columns to wait when he noticed that Ash still wasn't going into the Ruins. "What's wrong?"

"Do you smell that?"

"Smell?" Lucas got up and went back over to Ash's side. He inhaled deeply through his nose and almost gagged as the stench hit him. "Oh, yeah, wow! Smells like someone rolled their dirty socks in dead fish."

"And then had them sprayed by a Skuntank." Ash held his nose, desperately trying not to breath in the stink.

"Hey, I resent that." The voice startled Ash and Lucas. They looked up to find a pudgy guy wearing a leather jacket and yellow helmet standing on top of a column, glaring down at them. "I mean, I took a bath just last month."

"Hey, who are you?" Ash asked bluntly.

The man's crooked mustache twitched as he smiled. "Why don't you ask your friend there?"

It was then that Ash noticed Lucas was staring up at the man with wide, fearful, unblinking eyes. His body was shaking uncontrollably and he was barely breathing.

"Lucas?" asked Ash with concern for his friend. "Lucas, do you know this guy?"

"It's Wa...Wa...Wa..."

"Here, let me help you." The man jumped off the column, landing right in front of the two travelers. "I'm Wario!"

"Wario? The same Wario who kidnapped your friend, Ness?" Lucas could only give the barest of nods in answer.

"Some friend," scoffed Wario. "He ran away like a scaredy little crybaby. Ha ha ha!" Wario clutched his belly and threw back his head in delighted laughter while Lucas fell to his knees in shame. Wario's insults had hit the young boy like sledgehammer blows. As if he didn't already blame himself enough for Ness' capture.

"Shut up! That's enough!" shouted Ash.

Wario abruptly stopped laughing and turned to Ash with a smug look on his face. "You got somethin' to say to me, kid?"

"Yeah! Stop laughing at my friend and take us to where you're keeping Ness."

"Great idea," said Wario. "Actually, I was gonna do that anyway."

"You were?" Ash didn't think it would be this easy.

"Yep. Of course, you'll be a Trophy when I do." Wario pulled out his Dark Cannon, aiming at Ash, but the Pokémon trainer grabbed Lucas and jumped out of the way of the shot. "What's with all the dodging? That just makes this so much harder."

Half-dragging Lucas behind him, Ash took cover behind one of the stone columns. "Stay here. I'm going to take care of this guy."

"NO!" Lucas desperately grabbed for his friend's arm to hold him back. "He'll get you like he did Ness."

"No worries. I've got it covered." Ash extracted himself from Lucas and, making sure that his younger friend was safely hidden, leaped back into view to confront Wario.

"Squirtle, come out!" A flash of white light and the tiny blue turtle was on the scene, ready for battle.

"This is what you're gonna fight me with? A tiny little turtle? Har Har!" Wario succumbed to another laughing fit as Ash grew ever angrier. Insulting his friend was bad enough, but no one insulted his Pokémon and got away with it.

"I think it's high time we give this guy a shower. Squirtle, Water Gun!"

"Squirtle!" Squirtle took a deep breath and blew out a jet of water which caught Wario mid-laugh. The villain was pushed back against a stone column, but he was more surprised than hurt by the attack.

"So, got some fight in ya, do ya?" smirked Wario. "Well, I'll take care of that." Wario re-aimed his Dark Cannon at Squirtle, but the gun wouldn't fire. "Come on, you stupid piece of junk." The portly villain pulled the trigger again and again, but only sparks came out of the barrel - no laser.

"Looks like your toy has a short circuit," taunted Ash.

Wario growled and threw the weapon to the ground. "Fine. I'll just have to Trophify you the old fashioned way." Raising his fists, Wario charged towards Squirtle and his trainer.

"Squirtle, Withdraw!"

The turtle Pokémon withdrew completely into his red shell as Wario was bearing down on the little creature, smiling at the thought of his enemy hiding from him. As the villain brought down a beefy hand that would surely smash Squirtle's shell to pieces, the shell shot forward, sliding along the ground and collided with Wario's leg. Wario tumbled to the ground, bashing his head on the hard stone ground.

"Yeah! Way to go, Squirtle!" cheered Ash.

"Squirt Squirtle!" Squirtle popped back out of his shell, looking very pleased.

Lucas watched the battle from his hiding place and silently cheered as well. He was unwilling to make any noise that might attract the attention of Wario who was now getting up and shaking his head to clear his senses.

"Alright," growled the villain, "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

Ash had been studying his enemy since the fight began. Wario was strong, to be sure, but his bulk made him slow while Squirtle was surprisingly fast for a turtle. They could use that to end this fight. "Squirtle, Withdraw again!"

Squirtle darted back into his shell and shot across the ground once more, spinning like a top. But now, Wario was wise to this trick.

"Not this time." Wario gave a shrill whistle and from behind the mountain raced a yellow motorcycle with red flames painted on it. Wario leapt on as it zoomed past and with a roar of its over-powered engine, sped straight for the oncoming Squirtle.

"Hang tough, Squirtle!" shouted Ash. "You can take him!"

"So, you wanna play Chicken, do ya?" The gap between the two opponents quickly lessened as each picked up speed, determined not to be the one to flinch. In a head on collision, Squirtle's hard shell plus the defensive boost he got from the Withdraw attack would give him the advantage. Whether Wario realized this or not was unclear, but it didn't matter. His inbred cowardice refused to allow him to risk anything that might actually cause him harm.

Just before the two fighters collided, Wario pulled a hard right turn, twisting his motorcycle into a tight circle so that he was now spinning like Squirtle was. At first confused, Ash suddenly realized what Wario was trying to do and shouted at Squirtle to get out of the way, but it was too late. The back end of Wario's bike struck Squirtle hard on the side, sending the little Pokémon flying through the air and landing on its back, bruised and dizzy.

"Squirtle! Are you all right?" screamed the trainer.

"Oh, no," Lucas murmured, his spirits dropping like a rock.

Wario pulled his bike out of its spin and rocketed once more towards the little blue turtle.

"Squirtle! Squirtle, get up!" Ash was frantic. His Pokémon friend was about to become road kill. "Get up, I know you can!"

But Squirtle could not. It just lay on its back, completely disoriented as the motorcycle drew ever closer.

"One order of pressed turtle, coming up," said Wario delightedly.

"Squirtle, return!" A beam of red light flashed by Wario and engulfed Squirtle, transporting him back to the safety of its Pokeball.

Wario skidded to a stop and faced Ash, his motorcycle growling like a beast barely kept on a leash. "If you won't let your little pet play anymore, I guess I'll just have to pummel you." Before Ash could even blink, Wario was right in front of him.

Years of running from dangerous Pokémon had given Ash some pretty impressive evading skills. He managed to jump out of the way of the motorcycle, but Wario's foot caught him in the stomach. Ash doubled over in pain. Before he could catch his breath, Wario had turned around and lashed out with his fist. Around and around, Wario went in a tight circle, striking the helpless trainer with a punch or kick each time he passed.

Lucas saw all this from behind the column. As he witnessed his new friend being beaten, the urge to do something welled up inside him, but it could not overcome his fear of Wario. He turned his back so he wouldn't have to see, but nothing he did could stop Ash's grunts of pain or Wario's triumphant boasting from reaching his ears. It was going to happen again. Another friend was going to be taken from him and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It would be his fault.

Memories of the attack in the abandoned zoo played endlessly in Lucas' mind. Wario's smug face staring into Ness' frozen one. His best friend, a Trophy, because of him.

_He ran away like a scaredy little crybaby._

Wario's words rung true. Lucas was a crybaby and a horrible friend. Ness must hate him.

_How could you possibly think that?_

Shocked, Lucas' eyes sprang open and his breath hitched. He looked around, but only Ash and Wario were in the area with him. He heard him, though. Lucas had definitely heard...

_Ness?_

_I don't hate you, Lucas. You're the best friend I've ever had._

_But...but..._

_Listen, Lucas, the world needs your help. **I** need your help._

_But I can't do it. Not alone._

_You don't have too. You have your new friend, right? And I'm sure you can find more._

Lucas looked out once more at Ash who was now on his knees, gasping for air. Wario had retreated several feet in preparation for one final, fatal attack. _Ness, how can I help anyone?_

_Remember when I said at the zoo about that not being the time to try and be a hero? Well, now is. Time to face your fears._

_Do you really think you can?_

_I know you've got it in you._

Ash struggled to pick himself up, but it took all his strength just to lift his head. He immediately wished he hadn't. Through the pain and fuzzy vision he saw Wario across from him revving up his bike.

"Once I'm through with you, I'll go after that sniveling psychic. Shouldn't be too much trouble." With the squeal of rubber on stone, Wario shot forward, intent on crushing Ash's head beneath his wheels.

"PK Freeze!"

A bolt of blue energy exploded against the ground, coating the entire area in a sheet of slick ice. Wario's motorcycle slid wildly out of control with the villain just barely managing to hang on until it finally crashed into a stone pillar. Ash was stunned at his sudden rescue. Where had that come from? Suddenly, a hand was on his shoulder and Lucas was looking down at him with concerned eyes.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," said Ash as Lucas helped get him into a sitting position. The world would spin upside down if he tried to stand. "Um, Lucas, did you do that?" Ash pointed to the patch of ice.

"Yeah, I guess I did," said Lucas hesitantly, but with obvious pride.

"My bike!" Both heroes turned to Wario who was mourning over the twisted remains of his motorcycle. The villain advanced menacingly on Lucas, hatred in his eyes. "Look what you did! I'm gonna..."

"PK Fire!"

A semicircle of flame stopped Wario in his trakes.

"The only think you're going to do is surrender, Wario," stated Lucas.

Hands on his hips, Wario smiled amusingly at the young psychic. "Well, look who finally grew a backbone."

"That's right. I couldn't stop you from taking Ness, but I won't let you have Ash."

"You'll need to do better than a few magic tricks to stop me, little man!" Wario leapt straight threw the fire, fingers itching to close themselves around Lucas' throat.

The young hero didn't even bat an eye. "Is this better? PK Thunder!" Lucas' body crackled with blue and white energy. He thrust out his hands and an orb of pure power shot through the air, striking Wario right in the chest. The power coursed through the villain's body, shocking him with pain and blasting him backwards into the pillar.

Wario lay in a heap at the base of the column alongside his wrecked ride. "Yeah," he said in a strained voice, "That wasn't too bad." There was a loud crack and Wario looked up to see the pillar come toppling down on top of him, its base broken from his impact with it. "WAAAAAHHHH!"

CRASH!

When the dust cleared, Lucas and Ash picked their way through the pile of rubble, moving aside broken pieces of carved rock until they unearthed Wario's Trophy.

"Looks like that takes care of him," said a relieved Ash. He clasped Lucas on the back. "Hey, thanks for coming to my rescue; I thought my game was over for a second there. You really did great."

"Yeah, I did, didn't I," said Lucas, still a little stunned that it had been he who had saved the day. "I guess Ness was right; I did have it in me."

"Boy, did you ever." Ash winced as a sharp pain shot through him. He put a hand to his side, but drew it back almost immediately. The slightest pressure felt like a knife going through his ribs.

Lucas noticed his friend's reaction. "Are you going to be okay? Should we go find a doctor?"

"No, I'll be fine." The Pokémon trainer reached into his backpack and pulled out a small bottle with a red heart label on it.

"What's that?"

"Hit Point Elixer. A must for the frequent traveler." A single swig and Ash could already feel the healing powers of the liquid start to work. A slight burning sensation filled his veins as scars healed and bruises disappeared.

Lucas smiled to see his friend back in top form. "What about Squirtle? Does he need healing?"

On reflex, Ash reached for the Pokeball hanging from his belt. "Squirtle just got stunned when Wario's bike hit him. Some rest and he'll be back in fighting form. Now, back to why we came here in the first place. I'm going into the Ruins and find that Pokémon."

"Don't you mean _we_ are going in?"

Ash turned to his little friend in surprise. "I thought you wanted to stay out here."

"With him?" asked Lucas, pointing to the Wario Trophy still covered in rock. "No way. Besides, now that I've faced my fear, I'm feeling a surge of courage."

"Really?"

"Yup. So let's get going into those dark and dangerous Ruins before I come to my senses."

* * *

Two robots rolled down the steel corridor side by side, their unblinking glass eyes staring straight ahead. They weren't in any great hurry, but neither was their pace slacking. They saw no other beings, metallic or otherwise, on their path and so saw no reason to stop and simply continued on their way. The hallway was so long that it took several minutes for the robot's forms to disappear from view and for the whirl of their mechanical wheels to fade from earshot. Then, and only then, did Samus pop the vent cover from the ceiling and slowly stick her head out.

The corridor was quiet, but the bounty hunter waited a full minute longer before climbing out of the vent as quickly and quietly as possible. Ever since she'd escaped from her cell, Samus had been secretly making her way around this base, trying to find her power suit and her ship. This was made difficult for two reasons. One: the place was huge. She'd been searching for hours and got the feeling that she'd barely seen one-tenth of the place. And two: there were robots crawling - or rather, rolling - around everywhere, forcing Samus to stick to the shadows which really wasn't her normal _modus operandi_. She preferred to charge in, cannons at the ready, blasting everything in her path until she got what she wanted. Crude? Perhaps, but highly effective.

The small plasma laser she currently had might do some damage, but it certainly didn't make her a one-woman wrecking crew. Sighing in acceptance, she bushed the dust off her clothes and followed the two robots down the hall, stepping as lightly as she could. The laser was held tight in her fist, at the ready. There were no curves or side passages in this hallway, which meant there was nowhere to hide if more robots showed up. That was fine with Samus, though. She'd been itching for a little trouble.

Soon she got her wish as the corridor lead her to a metal door flanked by two of the robots. The same ones she saw earlier? Impossible to tell.

They saw each other at the same time. The robots rolled out to catch her, their claw-like hands extended, but Samus didn't wait. Sprinting forward, she leapt over the robots and pressed the trigger on her laser. The plasma beam extended into a long whip and with a single flick of the wrist, sliced right through the robot's necks. Their heads clattered to the ground as Samus landed with perfect grace behind them.

"Don't mind me, fellas," said Samus as the now unguarded door slid open. "I'm just gonna take a look around."

The room beyond was empty and dimly lit, but Samus could make out several large machines lining the walls. Getting closer to one of the machines, she could see it was a large glass tube with several wires running out the ends to blank computer monitors. Samus had seen several similar devices on the Ceres Space Colony for examining living specimens. Presumably, these machines were for the same purpose.

"This must be a laboratory of some sort," muttered Samus as she gazed into each of the containers. They all appeared to be empty. "Doesn't look like they're doing too brisk a business, though."

"CHUUUUUU!"

Samus whipped around at the sudden scream, her plasma laser held out in front. A yellow glow and a crackling noise was coming from the far wall, but it only lasted for a few seconds before the light dimmed and the scream faded.

Cautiously, Samus stepped forward to the only occupied container. Inside she saw what appeared to be a large mouse, but it was yellow with two red dots on its cheeks. It's pointed ears ended in black tuffs and its tail was shaped like a lightning bolt.

**PIKACHU**

The strange creature was laying flat on its stomach, breathing heavily, tail drooping. It opened a single black eye when Samus approached. When the bounty hunter put her hand on the container, the mouse stiffened and tried to draw back, but it could do little more than twitch its legs

The glass was hot against Samus' skin. The bounty hunter wondered what could have put this creature in the state it was in. A split second warning was all Samus had to draw her hand away as bolts of electricity flew across the surface and into the container, striking the large mouse.

"CHUUUUUU!"

The creature's body jumped and twisted at unnatural angles as the electric power surged through it. Its cry was so loud, Samus was surprised when the glass of the container didn't break. Her mind flashbacked to her own pain that she'd suffered at the hands of their shared captors.

The electricity lasted mere seconds, although to the mouse it must have seemed a lifetime, and when the shocking ceased, it collapsed back onto its stomach. Both of its eyes were now open, pleading with the mysterious woman in front of it, begging her to stop its pain.

Feeling shame creeping into her gut, Samus looked away and saw the computer monitors attached to the machine collecting data.

Life form #025 locally known as PIKACHU.

Species: Pokémon

Able to generate large quantities of electricity

Currently testing to indicate whether life form can be used as secondary power source.

"So, they want to use you as a living battery, do they?" said Samus, looking once again at the creature before her.

"Pi," squeaked the weak Pokémon as all hope seemed to fade from its eyes and its body slumped even lower.

Samus took a moment to consider. Certainly, she felt for this creature and wished to help, but she was first and foremost a bounty hunter, which meant figuring out what she could gain from any situation.

What these robots were doing was cruel, no argument there. Oh, sure, she'd seen other scientists study living beings, but always without causing any undue anguish. This...this was torture, plain and simple. On the other hand, she knew nothing about this creature or where it came from. It could be dangerous and attack her the moment it was set free. Unbidden, memories of another dangerous creature she'd helped played out in her mind. That creature had come to her rescue when she'd most needed it. Maybe Samus and this yellow mouse could help each other.

"I hope I don't end up regretting this," said Samus. Activating her plasma laser whip, the bounty hunter aimed for the container. Pikachu saw her action and closed its eyes in preparation for some new kind of pain. One swing of the whip was enough to break open the container like an egg.

Pikachu glanced up, surprised to find its cage broken apart. It tried to stand, but the repeated shocks had left it weak. Careful to avoid the broken glass, Samus gently lifted Pikachu out of the container and laid it on the floor.

"You alright there, little guy?"

Now that it was free, Pikachu seemed to be rapidly recovering. Strength was returning to its limbs. The electric Pokémon stood up shakily, but with determination. "Pikachu," it cooed, rubbing its head against Samus' leg in thanks.

"You're welcome."

The tender moment was abruptly shattered as an alarm sounded throughout the room and flashing red lights popped out of the walls. The laboratory door slid open and a dozen robots poured in.

"Stand back, Pikachu," said Samus as she stepped forward, laser whip ready. "I'll take care of this."

Pikachu, it seemed, had other ideas. Rage at its captivity flared. Its ears pressed down on its head as its cute face twisted into an angry scowl. It jumped in front of Samus and before the bounty hunter could stop it, ran right up to the gang of robots.

"Pikachuuuu!"

A yellow lighting storm burst forth from the small creature, engulfing every one of its android captors. Electricity sparked and flickered across their metal skin. Their lens eyes cracked and shattered. The rubber on their wheels melted, bonding them to the floor. When the storm subsided, the entire group was reduced to nothing more than a pile of smoking scrap metal.

"Wow," said Samus in awe, surveying the damage. She looked down at Pikachu who looked back up with a wide, proud smile. "Little guy, I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

* * *

"Watch out!"

SHINK!

A cluster of metal spikes shot out of the ports hidden within the floor, rising almost all the way to the stone ceiling in the dimly lit corridor.

"That was way too close," said Lucas as he and Ash gently floated to the ground, a light blue aura dissipating around them. It was a good thing the previous battle with Wario had allowed Lucas to gain a measure of control over his psychic power. They had already saved the two hero's lives on at least three occasions.

With the grinding sound of ancient gears turning, the deadly spikes retracted back into their homes, waiting for the next unwitting explorer.

"I don't even know what set this one off." Lucas scanned the floors and the walls for the hidden trigger that had activated the trap, but saw nothing. As they had explored the early areas of the Ruins, such switches were incredibly obvious: a dark stone set amongst lighter colored ones, a thin trip wire stretched across a doorway, a specific symbol painted on the wall. As they progressed further, the triggers had become increasingly difficult to spot until now, when they were nearly invisible.

That fact worried Lucas. Thinking back, it was as if whoever built the ruins wanted the people who ventured in to make it at least partway in, the easy-to-avoid traps giving them a false sense of confidence and security. At a certain point, the difficulty level ramps up and any intruders are quickly taken out. Lucas couldn't help but worry that this was all leading to something worse up ahead.

Ash, on the other hand, didn't appear to be the least bit intimidated. This latest trap had barely fazed him. "Come on, we have to keep moving," the Pokémon trainer insisted, grabbing Lucas' shirt and tugging him forward.

"Fine, but not that way," said Lucas, pointing to the hallway where the spikes laid in wait. "Let's try this way." He indicated another passage on their left.

"Okay," said Ash in an indulgent way. He pulled a piece of red chalk from his backpack and made a thick mark on the wall as they passed through the archway. Ash had ventured into temples and cave systems before, looking for wild Pokémon or Pokémon related artifacts, and every one of them was basically the same: a sprawling network of interconnected hallways, most of which looked exactly like the others. These Ancient Ruins were no different. With the chalk, Ash could mark were they'd already been.

As the duo continued down their new path, Lucas took the chance to glance at the strange symbols carved into the bedrock walls. Most of them appeared to be nothing more than decorative designs consisting of long swirling lines flitting over and under each other until you couldn't tell where one ended and another began. Staring at it made Lucas' eyes hurt. They were probably meant to represent something, but who knew what it was supposed to be.

There was, however, one image on the wall that Lucas felt sure he could decipher pretty clearly. It showed a lush landscape with flowing rivers and bountiful fruit trees. People and animals populated the land and although the carvings were rough and indistinct, they all looked very happy. High above this land was a platform of some sort with strange creatures on it. The creatures looked like a pair of binoculars stuck to a pole sitting on a skate board. These hodgepodge creatures were looking down on the people and animals below and seemed glad that everyone was happy. The scene even made Lucas smile in contentment.

But then, all that happiness evaporated as the young psychic's eyes turned towards the top of the carving. A great cloud of darkness hovered above the other creatures, all blissfully ignorant of the shadow observing them. The cloud was made of the same swirling lines that covered the rest of the walls, but whereas those lines had been smooth, the lines that made up the cloud were jagged like lightning. The flickering torchlight in the hallway only added to the overall ominous nature of the image. If Lucas stared hard enough at the cloud - and indeed, he was having a hard time tearing himself away from it - he could just make out a pair of faint, wicked eyes staring back at him.

"Lucas? Hey, Lucas!" Ash had finally realized that his travelling companion was not dutifully by his side anymore and had backtracked down the corridor to find him. He saw Lucas staring almost blankly at the wall carving, not even noticing when Ash stepped right up next to him.

"Lucas?" The young psychic yelped and jumped five feet in the air when the Pokémon trainer tapped him on the shoulder. He had to take several deep breaths to slow down his heart. "Whoa, easy there. What's got you so tense?"

A still slightly shaking finger pointed to the wall carving. Ash gave it a quick once over before just shrugging and saying, "Nice, but I wouldn't want it hanging in my bedroom. Come on, let's go."

Ash turned to continue down the corridor, but Lucas' hand on his arm stopped him. "Ash, wait. I think this picture is predicting some kind of catastrophe. That cloud must represent something evil."

"Or it could be a prehistoric weather report," Ash replied, yanking his arm free.

Lucas was more than a little put off by his friend's callous attitude and his temper was already wearing thin from all the traps they'd faced. "This is serious, Ash," he said with an edge to his voice. "This picture shows a darkness threatening the world. And now, we're fighting Primids? Beings made of darkness? Don't you think there might be a connection?" Lucas spoke slowly and clearly as if addressing a child.

The older boy glared at the younger; his temper also flaring. "Obviously, there's a connection, Lucas, but what of it? If the Primids are the darkness in the picture then they're here now and staring at a wall isn't going to make them go away!"

That was a good point. Lucas blinked in surprise, his anger gone. His mouth opened, but was unable to summon up any kind of argument.

Ash sighed and in a much calmer tone said, "Look, Lucas, I've been in my fair share of ruins and caverns and most of them have had some kind of warning or prediction hidden away in a carving or scroll or tablet. If you let every single doomsday prophecy get to you, you'll spend the rest of your life locked away, counting down the days to Armageddon."

"Are you saying we shouldn't worry?" Lucas asked cautiously.

"I'm saying the only thing we can do now is to react to the present. The Primids are here, so we need to fight them, ancient carving or not." Then, Ash flashed Lucas a confident smile. "Besides, in my experience, things always seem to work out in the end."

Once again, Ash started down the path deeper into the Ruins and this time, Lucas was at his side. "I guess you're right," the psychic said.

"Of course I am," replied Ash cheekily. "There's nothing to fear. We'll be fine as long as we stay away from anymore..."

Click.

Thud!

"...traps."

The sound of stone grinding against stone filled the hall. The two heroes looked up to see a section of the ceiling retracting like a skylight. They took several steps back, both assuming that this trap was another where boulders fell from the roof to crush them, but instead of rocks, three grey spheres dropped down and hovered in the air.

Ash took a bold step forward to get a good look at these strange things. They seemed to be made of metal. The Pokémon trainer could see a distorted reflection of himself on the slowly rotating surface.

"What do you suppose these are?" Ash wondered.

With the sound of a sword pulled from a scabbard, four blades popped out of each of the spheres, their deadly edges glittering in the torchlight.

"Sharp," said Lucas as Ash hurriedly backed away. "Those things are sharp."

"Well, they're about to be sharply reduced in number. Squirtle, come out!" A flash of white light and the little blue turtle stood between the pair of heroes and the trio of bladed spheres.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!"

"Squirtle!" The tiny turtle blew out a powerful stream of water straight at the nearest sphere. The blades on said sphere twitched and then started to spin around faster than the eye could follow. The blades cut right through Squirtle's attack, causing the water to soak the walls, floor and ceiling, but leaving the sphere perfectly dry.

"Stop, Squirtle!" Ash shouted as he recalled his partner. As soon as the Water Gun ceased, so too did the blades of the sphere stop spinning.

"Looks like they're water proof," muttered Ash.

"Let's see if they're PSI proof," said Lucas. Putting his fingertips to his forehead, Lucas concentrated his energy and an aura of blue and white sparked to life around him.

"PK Thunder!"

A ball of pulsing power screamed through the sky at the sphere, but it did nothing to defend itself. Turns out, it didn't have to. The ball of energy bounced right off the sphere's metallic skin and exploded at Lucas' feet.

"Uh oh."

The blades on all three spheres began to spin as they slowly floated towards Ash and Lucas.

"Okay, Mr. Experienced Adventurer," said Lucas, "What do we do now?"

"Well," said Ash, "there's an old trainer's trick for situations like this that never fails."

"Great," said Lucas, thoroughly relieved. "Let's hear it."

"RUN!"

Lucas turned as saw Ash bolting down the corridor. With a quick glance back at the spheres, the young psychic took off as well and quickly caught up to Ash. "Run? That's your plan? I could have come up with that!"

The two heroes ran down the stone passageway as fast as their legs could go. Behind them, they heard the telltale mechanical whirr that indicated the spheres were right on their tails. Lucas wildly threw bolts of fire over his shoulder, hoping to slow the spheres down, but like the thunder, the flames had no effect.

Ash and Lucas took every corner and side passage they could, unconcerned with traps or marking where they were going in a frantic attempt to lose the spheres, but the bladed balls followed right behind like a pack of wolves, cutting deep gouges in the walls and sending sparks through the air.

Finally, the two heroes had reached the end of their endurance. They simply could not run anymore. Exhausted, they turned to face the spheres, ready to make their last stand. As the spheres closed in, a gust of wind blew past Ash and Lucas and a new sound, similar to the rotating blades of the spheres, but much louder, reached their ears. All at once, the ceiling of the corridor collapsed, burying the spheres under a ton of rock.

A few pebbles fell with a dull thunk, a single broken blade twitched and suddenly, there was silence.

"Wow!" breathed Lucas.

"You see," said Ash with a grin. "I told you everything would work out."

"What happened?" asked Lucas, still in awe over their miraculous escape.

"Dunno," answered Ash. "Maybe one of them slashed through the ceiling. Does it really matter?"

"Not to me," said Lucas, turning his back on the rubble. "I'm not going to complain about whatever it is that AAAAH!"

Ash twisted around, ready to run from more spinning blades of death, but instead saw Lucas staring at a statue standing right in the middle of the path. It stood about three feet high and looked like some kind of four-legged animal - a dinosaur or lizard perhaps - except that there was a large flower with wide fern-like leaves growing out of its back.

**IVYSAUR**

Lucas backed away at the ferocious expression on the statue's face, but Ash crept slowly closer.

"Careful," warned Lucas. "The last thing you got near tried to make Julian Fries out of us."

"I don't think this is part of the Ruin's defenses," said Ash, craning his neck so he could see the Ivysaur statue from all angles.

"So, what, it's just a piece of art, like the carving?"

"I don't think it's a statue either." Ash reached into his pocket and pulled out a handheld electronic device. With a flick of his wrist, he opened the front to reveal a view screen and several buttons. "This just might be a Trophy." Ash pointed his Pokedex at the Ivysaur and a computer voice filled the air.

_Ivysaur_

_The seed Pokémon._

_The bulb on Ivysaur's back grows as the Pokémon matures. If it spends more time lying in the sunlight, the bud will soon bloom into a large flower._

"Just as I thought," said Ash excitedly as he put his Pokedex away. "This is an actual Ivysaur."

"But what's it doing down here?" wondered Lucas. "This is most definitely not the creature we saw flying around outside."

"Maybe Ivysaur and that other Pokémon had a battle," suggested Ash. "They could have been fighting for territory. It happens pretty often in the wild."

"Should we revive him?"

"Absolutely." Ash plucked an empty Pokeball from his belt. "After I capture him."

"You're going to take him with us?"

"Why not? Ivysaur's really strong and besides, he's right here waiting for us. Never look a gift Ponyta in the mouth, as they say." Ash threw the Pokeball; it arced through the air and struck Ivysaur, popping open. The Ivysaur Trophy became surrounded in red energy that forcibly sucked it into the Pokeball.

Holding his prize up high, Ash flashed a sign for victory and shouted for joy. "All right! I got Ivysaur."

"Congratulations!" praised Lucas. "Can we leave now? I've about had my fill of this place."

"Not until I get what I came for," said Ash as he once again made his way through the Ruins with Lucas reluctantly behind him.

"I just hope capturing that one will be as easy," said Lucas.

Not far away, a figure hidden in the shadows watched the two heroes as they disappeared down the corridor. White gloved fingers curled around the stone wall as he poked his head out of a side door the duo hadn't even noticed. "About time those two got on the right track," he said. "I was beginning to thick I'd have to lead them by the hand." He looked over at the still-sparking machines laying broken under the rocks. "Guess I should thank you guys for hurrying them along."

The figure hadn't known about the bladed spheres when he'd first scouted out the Ruins. He had managed to disarm or deactivate several other traps before Ash and Lucas even entered, effectively making a safe passage for them. Unfortunately, while the figure had known the most direct route, the two kids had not and had quickly strayed from the path the figure had worked so hard to lay out.

Not only that, he'd had to save them from the spheres, although, admittedly, that had not been a big deal. He had long ago learned how to deal with any and all manner of robotic enemies.

Then, finally, the two so-called heroes had managed to make it to the Ivysaur and capture it. That thing had not been easy to defeat, what with the vines it managed to create whipping about everywhere and almost entangling him several times.

"This had better be worth all the trouble," the figure muttered. In any case, his job here was done. He was under direct orders not to follow the kids into the central chamber. Whatever was in there, they'd have to face it alone. "I sure hope they're up to it."

* * *

The mountain road had grown ever more winding and less defined as it left the grassy plains and entered a more barren and lifeless swath of land. Here the sky was always cloudy and the trees had long since given up on producing even the smallest amount of greenery. Round hills gave way to sharp, jagged peaks.

A great cloud of smoke rose up from the hovercraft that King Dedede had stolen from Wario that now lay broken down on the side of the road with the Luigi, Ness, and Peach Trophies still inside. Link's lone arrow had done a healthy bit of damage, but still, the vehicle had managed to travel quite a ways before finally conking out; far enough, at least, to get Dedede out of sight of his pursuers.

Now the royal villain had to act quick to keep his lead on the heroes. He stood by the wreck, a communicator in his hand, desperately trying to call for help.

"I told you, I have an Auto Club membership, I just don't have my card with me…No, I don't know what my member number is. It's twenty digits long; who memorizes those things?...King Dedede… DEDEDE…I'm not stuttering! That's my name...Stop laughing; it's not funny…Look, how much will it cost to tow a broken down hovercraft…HOW MUCH?...That's outrageous…Can't I get some kind of discount for royalty or something?...Oh, forget it."

The King of Dream Land threw his phone away in disgust. It looked like he'd have to leave the hovercraft right here. A telltale clue for the heroes, but that couldn't be helped now. There was no way he could abandon the Trophies, though, and since the hovercraft couldn't carry them...

"Looks like I'll have to do it the hard way," said Dedede as he rolled up the sleeves on his cloak. Stretching his muscles to loosen them up a bit, he reached out towards Luigi's statue...and blew a shrill whistle.

Immediately, dozens of Waddle Dees came up out of nowhere to stand beside their king.

"Carry these Trophies to the castle," ordered Dedede.

Without question, the Waddle Dees picked up Luigi, Ness and Peach and started off down the path, but stopped when Dedede cleared his throat behind them.

"Aren't we forgetting something?"

The little minions looked at each other and sighed as they realized what the king meant. With crestfallen expressions, each of the Waddle Dees not carrying a Trophy - which was most of them - went over to Dedede and with a great heave, hoisted him into the air. Struggling under the weight of their leader, the Waddle Dees followed the ones with the Trophies up the mountain pass to Dedede's own headquarters, leaving the smoking vehicle behind.

* * *

The soft patter of sneakers hitting the stone floor echoed within the tight confines of the corridor until it seemed as if a hundred people were venturing within the Ruins. The din was growing to such a volume that Lucas had to constantly fight the urge to cover his ears. He was loathe to block out another of his senses ever since they'd entered the current area of the Ruins which the former tenants had apparently not seen any need to install torches in. Their only guide was the slightest wisp of wind they'd felt earlier against their skin and were now following, hoping it would lead to an exit.

"We must be almost there," said Ash.

Lucas grunted, not inclined to answer further. His friend had been saying that for the last hour as he crept slowly within the darkness, one hand skimming along the wall and the other firmly attached to Ash's shirt. Although he wasn't claustrophobic, Lucas found himself struggling to keep his breathing even, the dark far more suffocating than any solid walls. The only good thing about the situation was that the ancient temple seemed to have run out of traps to throw at them.

All of a sudden, Lucas felt the corridor around him give way to a vast openness. The sensation was unexpected - a little like being in bed, half-asleep, and then dreaming that you're dropping down a hole and you think you're falling out of bed. So, Lucas' first reaction was to clutch tighter to Ash for safety, wrapping both arms around his waist.

The older boy patted Lucas' hands gently and said, "Hey, not to worry. We're fine. We're safe."

Once he'd gotten his wits about him, the young psychic sprang back, highly embarrassed by his reaction. "I-I know that," stammered Lucas defiantly. Trying to cover up his fright, he continued, "I...just wish we could see where we were, that's all."

As if they were waiting for those exact words, a line of torches over the travelers' heads sprang to life. The yellow and red flames illuminated a huge circular stone chamber with structural columns arranged all along the rim. Stone rings, parallel to the ground, divided the wall into sections that kept rising up and up until the wall disappeared from sight.

"Wow," said Lucas, craning his neck, trying to see the roof of the tower. "What is this place?"

Ash, also looking up, just shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe it's..."

A very familiar roar sounded from somewhere high above the pair. A gust of wind, as strong as a small cyclone, slammed into them, forcing them back against the wall. The blaze of the torches flickered and threatened to go out. Again the roar sounded and this time it was much closer with the swish of flapping wings mixed in. Lucas and Ash felt the vibrations in the stone as something large landed with a loud thud. The two friends lowered their arms, which had been protecting them against the wind, and gazed in shock.

Standing across the circular room was a dragon-like beast. The firelight blended perfectly with its orange skin and glittered off its pearl white fangs and claws. The membrane of its open wings was blue, the same color as its eyes which stared at the pair of adventurers with hot rage. Its most curious feature was a yellow flame blazing on the end of the creature's tail.

**CHARIZARD**

Lucas edged closer to Ash, his eyes never leaving the beast in front of him. "I think I liked it better when I couldn't see." The dragon's gaze fell to the young psychic and besides the rage, there was some humor in those blue eyes, as if he enjoyed the fact that Lucas was scared of him. The young boy flashed back to Wario who had that same look. Courage bloomed in Lucas' heart, chasing the fear away. "Is this the Pokémon you wanted?" he said with a lot more confidence.

The excited twinkle in Ash's eyes left little doubt. He knew exactly what this creature was, but just to be sure, he pulled out his Pokedex and pointed it at the dragon.

_Charizard_

_The flame Pokémon._

_It is said that charizard's fire burns hotter if it has experienced harsh battles._

"Judging by this one's tail," said Ash with a kind of awed respect in his voice, "he's seen his share of fighting. He's not going to go down easy."

"The two of us can handle it," said Lucas. He was already charging his energy, as evidence by a faint blue glow forming on his skin. "Let's do this."

Lucas had taken two steps forward when Ash threw out his arm, stopping him. "No," the Pokémon trainer said. "I have to do this alone."

"What?" The young psychic was surprised and a little hurt by Ash's outburst. "But I can help. I fought Wario, didn't I?"

"I know and I'm sure you'd give Charizard a run for his money." Ash smiled down at his friend. "But a trainer has to capture his own Pokémon or they'll never respect him. I couldn't call myself a trainer if I let someone else battle for me."

Lucas was not entirely convinced. "But, Ivysaur..."

"That was different," said Ash, ready for his partner's argument. "I never actually accepted help that time and whoever did beat Ivysaur just abandoned it. But this is different. I have to face Charizard on my own."

_It doesn't seem that different to me_, thought the boy psychic. Still, he could respect his friend's choice, even if he didn't like it. With great reluctance, Lucas stepped back and allowed Ash to go forward without him.

Charizard took in the exchange between the two humans calmly, if not patiently. Once it was clear that Ash was the only one who would fight, Charizard also stepped forward to meet his opponent. From his actions, Ash got the feeling this was not the first time someone had tried to capture the fiery Pokémon. However many had come before him, they'd obviously failed. Well, Charizard's winning streak ended today.

"Squirtle, I choose you!"

The tiny turtle looked especially diminutive against the hulking dragon-like creature, but no less determined to win. It was a risk, Ash knew, to send out the weaker Squirtle against the fully evolved Charizard, but the young trainer was counting on the type difference to give him the edge. Water beats fire, after all.

_Okay, here we go_, thought Ash. "Water Gun, Squirtle."

Squirtle let loose a stream of water from its mouth, straight at Charizard, but the fire-type Pokémon barely batted an eye. Just before the water hit, Charizard closed its wings, effectively creating a shield the water slouched right off of.

Ash and Squirtle wore twin looks of dismay. "Not off to a good start," he muttered.

Opening his wings back up, Charizard gave a look of contempt at his opponents that clearly said, _My turn._ The large lizard opened its mouth and out spewed a thick jet of fire.

"Flamethrower," breathed Ash, naming Charizard's chosen attack. "Look out, Squirtle.

Squirtle hardly had enough time to duck and let the fire pass over it, but just barely. It could feel its normally moist skin dry and crack from the heat. The Flamethrower ended abruptly, but Charizard wasted no time in unleashing a second volley.

"Squirtle, Withdraw!"

Heading its trainer's call, Squirtle pulled himself into its protective shell as the fire hit. The flames twisted around Squirtle like a hurricane and for a moment, Ash was afraid this battle would be over before it really began. After a few seconds, the flames died down to reveal Squirtle crawling out of a singed turtle shell. The little Pokemon cringed in pain, but stood up strongly.

"Squirtle, are you okay?"

The blue turtle looked over its shoulder and gave a short nod before turning back around. Charizard grunted in an impressed kind of way and, with one flap of its wings, took to the air. He climbed high overhead before unleashing balls of fire down at Squirtle. The turtle barely had to dodge the attacks as the liquid fire would splash against the ground close to Squirtle, but never actually hit him.

"He's toying with us," Ash realized. Charizard was just having fun trying to scare Squirtle. Well, that kind of arrogance could always be exploited.

"Squirtle." Ash made sure to keep his voice low, so Charizard wouldn't hear. "Use your Water Gun, but low power."

If its trainer's command was confusing, Squirtle showed no sign. He simply sprayed thin streams of water at Charizard who didn't even attempt to block it. The attack would hit, but was too weak to do any damage. The water turned to steam as soon as it struck the dragon's superheated skin.

Finally, Charizard seemed to have grown bored of his game and dived down to finish the fight. This was exactly what Ash wanted. He ordered Squirtle to cease attacking and wait. Squirtle obediently held still while Charizard flew ever closer. Closer. Not yet. Not yet...

"Now, Squirtle, Ice Beam! Full Power!"

Squirtle opened its mouth, but instead of water, a beam of blue energy shot out. Like before, Charizard made no more to dodge, allowing the beam to strike its left wing, but instead of the tingle from the weak Water Guns, it felt a sharp burning sensation as its wing became encased in ice. Charizard roared in pain as he struggled to stay aloft, the added weight from the ice throwing him off balance.

"Squirtle, Surf!"

A great pillar of water exploded out of the floor with Squirtle hanging ten. The wave rose high in the air and came crashing down on Charizard who likewise crashed into the ground while Squirtle landed lightly on its feet. The dragon picked itself up, snarling at Squirtle, enraged that it had been tricked like that.

"Water Gun, one more time."

Squirtle summoned the most powerful Water Gun it could and struck Charizard square in the chest, pushing him back against the wall so hard the stone cracked. The fire-type's head dropped limply and its breathing was heavy.

"Let's finished this. Withdraw and charge!"

The turtle Pokemon entered its shell and took off across the floor, aiming for Charizard. One more hit and it would be over.

Faster than anyone could follow, Charizard swipped its claw at Squirtle's shell, sending it skidding across the floor like a rebounding hockey puck. A heavily dazed Squirtle watched as Charizard stood up, flexed its wing and broke the ice surrounding it with a resounding crack.

"Not good!" The fire-type looked none the worse for wear after the beating it just took. Looks like it was Ash's turn to underestimate his opponent.

Charizard roared defiantly, daring Ash to attack it again. The young trainer didn't disappoint.

"Squirtle, Surf!"

Again, a wave of water burst forth with Squirtle on top, the crest high over Charizard's head. The dragon unleashed its Flamethrower, not at Squirtle, but at the water. The wave evaporated in a burst of steam and Squirtle's head met the stone floor. Before the turtle could get its bearings, Charizard grabbed the little guy and took off.

Ash called out to his partner, but Squirtle could hardly hear him, it was so high up. The tiny turtle's stomach lurched as Charizard swung a quick u-turn and dived towards the ground. Just before they hit, the dragon flared its wings and pulled up, but dropped Squirtle. The water-type smashed into the floor, creating a crater and a huge plume of dust.

"Squirtle!" Ash ran out towards his Pokémon to find Squirtle lying on the broken stones, unconscious. "You'll be okay, Squirtle," the trainer said soothingly as he gently picked up the little creature and carried it over to Lucas. "Take care of him for me, would you?" Ash pulled a small bottle from his backpack. "Put this healing potion on his wounds."

"No problem," assured Lucas.

Ash smiled his thanks and turned back to the battle. The young trainer looked at Charizard roaring in triumph and could not prevent an angry scowl as he considered his options, scant as they were. The obvious choice - retreat - was out of the question. Ash came here to capture Charizard and that's what he'd do. But he only had one Pokémon left and Ivysaur, while stronger than Squirtle, had still not reached its full evolutionary potential. Plus, this time, Ash had the type difference working against him.

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Lucas called from his vantage point.

Ash allowed himself a moment to mull over Lucas' offer. It sure was tempting, but no; he'd started this fight and he would be the one to finish it.

"Ivysaur, I choose you!"

A flash of white light and the grass-type Pokémon stood before him, revived and ready for action.

Charizard eyed this newcomer warily. The dragon had no doubts that it was the stronger combatant, but it had taken some serious damage and this trainer had proven to be cunning. It'd better finish this quickly. However, before Charizard could act, Ash made the first move.

"Ivysaur, Tackle!"

The plant Pokémon charged ahead, its heavy paws crunching gravel beneath them, its head lowered like a battering ram. Charizard did not wait, but sprang forward in its own Tackle attack. The two powerful creatures smashed together in a mass of muscle, flame vs. fichus.

For a moment, the two battlers seemed evenly matched, neither one managing to move the other. Then, with a burst of power, Charizard shoved Ivysaur away, immediately letting loose with a Flamethrower. The dragon only managed to keep the fire going for a second before Ivysaur, unbidden by its trainer, leapt through the Flamethrower to complete the Tackle and bashed Charizard right in the chest.

The fire-type stumbled back a few steps, rubbing its aching wound, amazed that a grass-type would try such a move. Ivysaur just stared impassively back, shaking out a few tiny fires that were smoldering on its leaves.

"Way to go, Ivysaur. Now use your Vine Whip."

Two small, but strong green vines popped out from the flower on Ivysaur's back and wound their way around Charizard's body, tangling up the dragon's arms, feet and even tying its jaw shut to prevent anymore fire. Now immobilized, Charizard struggled against the bonds, but it could not break them. Its wings, however, were still free and it tried to take flight. Ivysaur kept the fire-type anchored, but Charizard flapped harder and Ivysaur's paws lifted slightly off the ground. It was losing this aerial tug of war.

"Let go, Ivysaur."

The grass-type Pokémon abruptly released its Vine Whip and Charizard shot backwards, flipping end over end and bouncing off the stone wall before it could right itself.

"Razor Leaf!"

Dozens of sharp edged leaves spinning like Frisbees flew at the dragon until it was engulfed a storm of foliage. Each leaf by itself did little damage, but together they caused Charizard a lot of pain.

The flying fiery beast dived down to get away from the attack and strike back at Ivysaur, but Ash was ready this time.

"Stun Spore!"

A cloud of orange dust exploded from the flower on Ivysaur's back. The dust traveled up, carried by some unseen wind, right into Charizard's face. The dragon inhaled a great mouthful and within seconds felt a tingling sensation across its body. Charizard landed heavily on the floor, paralyzed as surely as if he were wrapped up in another Vine Whip.

Ivysaur took advantage of the situation to hit Charizard with another Tackle, knocking the fire-type onto its back.

"He's really taken a pounding, huh?" asked Lucas, holding the still recovering Squirtle.

"I just hope it's enough," said Ash. "Moment of truth time. Go Pokeball!" The red and white sphere opened as it struck Charizard and sucked it into its confines in a flash of red light. The Pokeball lay on the ground, rocking back and forth while the button on the front blinked red as Charizard struggled against the ball's hold. With a pop, the ball opened back up and the dragon-like Pokémon burst forth.

"Darn it," cursed Ash. "It's still got the strength to fight."

Charizard roared at Ivysaur, determined not to be the loser of this fight. He took off once again, but stayed low to the ground, no more than a foot off the floor. Claws and fangs flashed menacingly in the torch light; he looked ready to shed Ivysaur apart.

"Enough's enough. Time to finish this, Ivysaur. Vine Whip!"

Jumping to the side, Ivysaur dodged Charizard's reckless attack and managed to grab onto the dragon's tail with its vines. The grass-type winced as the flame on Charizard's tail burned the vines, but Ivysaur ignored it and used its opponent's momentum and centripetal force to send Charizard crashing headfirst into the wall. The finally defeated Pokémon slumped against the floor, completely wiped out.

"One more time; Pokeball go!"

Again the sphere flew and absorbed Charizard into it. Again the ball rocked back and forth as the button blinked. Both Ash and Lucas were holding their breaths, silently praying for it to work. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, there was a final beep and the ball grew silent.

Ash stood rooted to his spot on the sidelines, not quite believing what had just happened, but after a moment, he realized that he'd done it. He'd won. Charizard was his.

"Alright!" he shouted, jumping into the air and whooping at the top of his lungs. He ran over to the Pokeball and held it reverently, as if it were made of gold. "I captured Charizard!"

Lucas shouted for joy for his friend, Ivysaur roared in triumph and Squirtle gave a tiny thumps up.

"Guys, meet the newest member of our team," said Ash proudly.

Lucus' smile vanished when he saw Ash's finger inch towards the release button on the Pokeball. "Wait, you're not going to let him out, are you?"

A flash of white light was the answer and Charizard was standing among them, haggard and scarred from the battle, but standing tall, the fire on its tail blazing brighter than before. As the dragon's blue eyes passed over Ivysaur and Squirtle, it gave each a small nod of respect which they returned. When it got to Lucas, it gave a fang-filled smile and laughed deep in its throat when the young psychic gulped and involuntarily stepped back. Then Ash stepped forward and Charizard bowed and allowed the young trainer to rub its head affectionately.

"Welcome aboard," Ash whispered. Charizard growled its thanks.

Once both Squirtle's and Charizard's wounds had healed, Ash returned all three Pokémon to their Pokeballs. "Now we can start looking for your friend, Ness."

"We better start looking for a way out of here first," replied Lucas. He jerked his thumb at the entrance to the circular room. "The way we came was blocked off when the ceiling collapsed, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," said Ash. "Well, there were lots of other corridors. One of them must lead around that mess."

"I'd rather not get lost again," said Lucas. He squinted up at the dark ceiling of the tower. "I bet there's some kind of opening up there that Charizard used to get in and out."

"Good thinking. We can just ride Charizard out of here." Ash pulled the appropriate Pokeball from his belt and was about to open it when the entire chamber started to tremble. "What's going on?"

"Earthquake!"

The shaking got worse, making both boys lose their balance. They scrambled out of the way as large, jagged pieces of rock were dislodged from the walls and fell to the floor, breaking apart and spraying shrapnel everywhere.

"Quick, back to the corridor!" But neither of boys could so much as stand up, let alone move. Then, daylight flooded the room as the roof of the tower burst apart and something very, very big fell through the hole.

* * *

_And...cut. I consider this to be my first real cliffhanger ending in the story. Unfortunately, you guys will have to wait awhile to see how it resolves, unless, of course, you already know what happens. I don't know how it happened, but every single chapter is getting longer than the last. Oh, well. It'll probably even out since I expect the final few chapters to be much shorter. Surprisingly, I am finding it difficult to write the Samus scenes. It took quite a while to get this one right. I don't know what it is; it's just harder than I thought it'd be. Coming up next, Mario and the gang will return to try and rescue their friends from Dedede, but a nasty surprise is waiting for them. But first, I'll be working on my next Kim Possible story based on a challenge I received. Don't worry, I won't forget about Subspace Redux. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. Thank you for reading._


End file.
